Novel Liquid extraction method for detecting Native-wood Formaldehyde

New vigorous regulations have been established for decreasing the allowable formaldehyde emissions from nonstructural wood based composites. Two main sources of formaldehyde emission in non-structural wood based composites are adhesive and wood. Adhesives are quite well known and great efforts have been conducted to decrease their formaldehyde content; however formaldehyde emission from wood has received little attention and it is not completely understood. Wood-borne formaldehyde emission exists in a complex equilibrium in wood matrix. The reaction between formaldehyde and wood hydroxyl groups/water can hinder the complete formaldehyde extraction. In order to have a complete formaldehyde extraction, a stronger nucleophile than hydroxyl and water groups is needed. In this study cross-linked poly (allylamine) (PAA) beads were synthesized and used as a strong nucleophile to extract all the biogenic and synthetic free-formaldehyde within the woody matrix of never-heated and heat-treated Virginia pines; the results were compared to simple water extraction. A new formaldehyde capturing device was also developed using a serum bottle. Results showed that there was no advantage of using PAA beads over simple water extraction for extracting woody matrix free-formaldehyde. This means that simple water extraction can extract all the free-formaldehyde from the woody matrix. It was also found that thermal treatment resulted in generating more wood-borne formaldehyde. The other important finding was the new developed formaldehyde capturing device. The device was very promising for detecting wood-borne formaldehyde from very small pieces of wood (5-70 mg) and can be very useful in future studies.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Forest Products

Department dc:contributor.department

Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Tasooji, Mohammad

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Frazier, Charles E.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Roman, Maren
• Renneckar, Scott Harold

• Native-wood formaldehyde emission
• liquid extraction
• poly (allylamine) beads
• water extraction

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:3199

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/73511