An immersion technique for studying wood wettability

Summary The wetting properties of wood were studied by a modification of the Wilhelmy technique. This method involved continuously monitoring the force exerted on a wood specimen as it was immersed at a controlled rate into a liquid. Wettability was expressed in terms of the area under the force-immersion curve and was referred to in this study as wettability index. The applicability of the technique was demonstrated for padauk and white spruce wood specimens heated for various time periods. The wettability of these woods in both distilled water and sodium hydroxide solutions decreased with increasing heating time. Sodium hydroxide solution yielded higher wettability index values, indicating that it was a better wetting agent than distilled water. The pH of the sodium hydroxide solution had a strong influence on magnitude of the wettability index. The possibility of using the technique for examining wood surface inactivation in relation to bonding with different adhesives is discussed.The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Dr. W. G. Warren and his staff for the statistical analyses and curve fitting. Dr. Casilla also expresses his gratitude to the National Research Council of Canada and to the Canadian Forestry Service, Department of the Environment, for a postdoctoral fellowship