Theses and Dissertations
Issuing Body
Mississippi State University
Advisor
Darrel Nicholas
Committee Member
El Barbary Hassan
Committee Member
Jason Street
Committee Member
Rubin Shmulsky
Date of Degree
8-6-2021
Original embargo terms
Complete embargo for 6 months
Document Type
Dissertation - Open Access
Major
Forest resources with emphasis in Sustainable Bioproducts
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
College
College of Forest Resources
Department
Department of Sustainable Bioproducts
Abstract
Lack of dimensional stability and susceptibility to the action of xylophagous organisms make wood a challenging material to work with. E-Caprolactam is a water-soluble cyclic amide chemical with low mammalian toxicity, that can be used as a bulking agent to improve the dimensional stability of wood and offers protection against subterranean termites and several wood degradant fungi. E-Caprolactam delivers a similar level of dimensional stability as that provided by PEG-1000, a chemical extensively studied in the past decades and a standard dimensional stabilizer agent for wood. Regarding wood protection, E-Caprolactam exhibits efficacy against wood decay fungi and termites at very low levels compared to PEG-1000. If water leaching can be inhibited for this product, e-Caprolactam can be considered as a strong candidate for the wood decking industry. In addition to the evaluation of E-Caprolactam for wood dimensional stabilization and preservation this dissertation covers the development of an apparatus developed to automate wood sorption and desorption studies, and their influence in the wood dimensional behavior. Product design techniques and prototyping studies were conducted, and calibration procedures were made. This apparatus is still in development, but it shows potential for increasing the accuracy of shrinking and swelling measurements and efficiency for dimensional stabilization studies.
Sponsorship
McIntire Stennis (Nicholas-State) - Fund: 170000 - Org: 080500 - Program: 027000 - Activity-Code: 065980 MSU FWRC (Research Activity) - Fund: 270117 - Org: 080500 - Program: 027000 - Activity-Code: 900100
Recommended Citation
Milsted, David, "Enhancement of wood properties with EPSILON-Caprolactam, and development of an apparatus for continuous monitoring water vapor sorption and desorption and its resultant wood dimensional changes" (2021). Theses and Dissertations. 5198.
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/td/5198