Influences of Thermo-Vacuum Treatment on Colors and Chemical Compositions of Alder Birch Wood

With high temperature-heat treatment, the dimensional stability and durability of wood is improved and wood color is darkened as well. In this paper, alder birch wood (Betula alnoides) was treated by the ThermoVacuum Treatment (TVT). The changes of wood color parameters and the chemical composition were determined by the CIE1976 L*a*b* method and the chemical analysis method, respectively. The results were revealed as follows: (1) A lower value of lightness, L*, and a higher value of total color difference, △E*, were obtained at the higher heat-treatment temperatures and longer treatment time. (2) The higher the heat-treatment temperatures and the longer the heat-treatment times were, the lower the contents of hemicellulose and cellulose were and the higher the content of lignin was. Moreover, Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis demonstrated that the characteristic absorption peaks of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin diminished. The acetylation reaction of hemicellulose and the degradation reaction of groups of lignin side chain occurred during TVT. (3) TVT degraded the chemical composition of cell walls, which resulted in further changes of the wood color. A significant correlation existed between the differences of color indices and the differences of the chemical composition after TVT.