Wood-polymer combinations: Bonding of alkoxysilane coupling agents to wood

Summary Trembling aspen has been impregnated with the coupling agent -methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane and the hygroscopicity and antishrink efficiency measured before and after water extraction. There was a hygroscopicity depression with treatment, but not enough to account for the observed antishrink efficiencies. There was limited reversibility after water extraction. This indicated that the wood was interacting with part of the sorbed silane more strongly than with water, and that there was a diversity of sorption environments within the wood-silane complex.The authors are grateful for financial support by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada