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The main objective of this work was to apply contact angle analysis to predict work of adhesion (W a ) between some modified wood materials and certain thermoplastics and adhesives. Wetting properties, i.e., contact angles, were measured by the Wilhelmy method on both freshly prepared and aged veneer samples of unmodified and acetylated Scots pine, furfurylated radiata pine, and heat treated Norway spruce. The sessile drop method was used to measure contact angles on a phenol resorcinol formaldehyde, an emulsion polymer isocyanate, and a one-component polyurethane adhesive. Contact angle data were also collected from the literature on polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polymethyl methacrylate, polystyrene, and Nylon 6. Contact angle analysis based on the Chang-Qin-Chen model was then applied to determine so-called acid-base interaction parameters and W a between the wood samples and the selected thermoplastics and adhesives. Results show that the ageing process led to an increased hydrophobic character of unmodified, heat treated, and furfurylated wood samples. The freshly prepared acetylated wood samples had a pronounced hydrophobic character which remained approximately constant after ageing. The predicted W a between the wood and the adhesives was considerably higher than that between the wood and the thermoplastics. Furthermore, the predicted W a between the acetylated wood and both the thermoplastics and water was approximately unchanged when comparing the fresh and aged samples. In contrast, the ageing of all other wood samples resulted in a dramatic decrease of the wood-water W a and a moderate decrease of the wood-thermoplastics W a . The wood-adhesives W a , however, was unchanged for the unmodified and furfurylated wood when comparing the fresh and aged samples and even increased for heat treated and acetylated wood samples.

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Summary This work focuses on the influence of extractives during wetting measurements on wood. Fresh and aged veneers of extracted and non-extracted heart- and sapwood of pine were prepared, and the Wilhelmy method was used to study the wettability of these veneers. In this method, the force acting on the veneers was measured during immersion in and withdrawal from a series of probe liquids. The results suggest that some of the probe liquids become severely contaminated by extractives during the measurements on the non-extracted veneers, and that this strongly affects the wood wetting measurements. The contamination is effectively detected as a distinct decrease in the surface tension of the liquids caused by dissolution or presence of wood extractives at the wood-liquid interface. It is important to note that such contamination may also occur during wetting studies on wood using other contact angle measurement techniques. The most obvious contamination occurred in the case of measurements on non-extracted veneers immersed in water and formamide. Generally, no contamination was detected in the case of measurements on extracted wood veneers. The Wilhelmy method may provide an efficient means for recording and control of any contamination of the probe liquids that may arise during wetting studies on wood.

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