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Forests
Special Issues
New Approaches to Wood Protection and Preservation
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New Approaches to Wood Protection and Preservation

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Wood Science and Forest Products".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 2547

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Ioannis A. Barboutis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Harvesting and Technology of Forest Products, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: wood technology; forest products technology and utilization; connections; joinery; furniture; impregnation; wood improvement; preservation; surface treatments; weathering of wood; adhesives and adhesion of wood
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Vasiliki Kamperidou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Harvesting and Technology of Forest Products, School of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: wood modification; improvement; treatments; thermal treatment; hydrothermal treatment; impregnation; characterization; chemistry of wood; chemical products of wood; chemical technologies; biomass; biomass biofuels; bioenergy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wood is one of the main forest products and a valuable material due to its unique properties. It can be utilized in a wide range of applications, satisfying urgent human needs in building materials and structural materials (among others) and ensuring a low environmental impact.

Some of the disadvantages of wood as a construction material are its vulnerability, under specific conditions, to the action of wood-destroying microorganisms (fungi, bacteria, insects, marine borers), and to relative humidity changes that cause dimensional instability and a gradual degradation of wood due to cracks, warping and other defects formation. Wood is also vulnerable to the action of other abiotic factors (solar radiation, air, etc.), as well as the action of fire on the material.

At present, advances in protection and preservation methods, such as physical, thermal, hydrothermal, chemical, and thermo-mechanical or surface treatments, among others, offer the opportunity to protect wood, enhance several properties, and increase the service life of wood and the structures it participates in.

Several challenges related to the development of sustainable, low-cost, efficient technologies and methodological approaches to wood improvement, protection, and preservation still remain.

This forthcoming Special Issue on“New Approaches to Wood Protection and Preservation”calls for original research papers with a focus on the development of new, or the improvement of existing, methodological approaches for wood protection and wood preservation, the beneficial role of modification in wood properties, impregnation techniques, surface treatments, physical, thermal, hydro-/hygro-thermal, chemical, thermo-mechanical modifications of wood, wood fiber protection and preservation (before incorporation in different composite polymeric matrices), etc. Papers presenting research efforts on the stabilization and preservation of archaeological wood, cultural heritage wood, and waterlogged wood protection are also of high interest. Further, submissions integrating commercialization, environmental impact, and future perspectives of wood modification treatments are particularly welcome.

Prof. Dr. Ioannis A. Barboutis
Dr. Vasiliki Kamperidou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • wood impregnation
  • surface modification
  • chemical treatment
  • preservation
  • wood improvement
  • archaeological wood
  • cultural heritage
  • wood modification
  • wood treatment
  • durability

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 4751 KiB  
Article
Surface Treatment of Oak Wood with Silica Dioxide Nanoparticles and Paraloid B72
by Andromachi Mitani, Vasiliki Kamperidou and Paschalina Terzopoulou
Forests 2024, 15(11), 1842; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15111842 - 22 Oct 2024
Viewed by 936
Abstract
Wood is a valuable material with incomparable advantages, though it is susceptible to biotic and abiotic factors action that affect it adversely and shorten its service life. In the current study, the surface modification of oak wood is carried out through brief immersion [...] Read more.
Wood is a valuable material with incomparable advantages, though it is susceptible to biotic and abiotic factors action that affect it adversely and shorten its service life. In the current study, the surface modification of oak wood is carried out through brief immersion in a solution of acrylic polymer Paraloid B72, in which silica dioxide nanoparticles in the form of nanopowder were dissolved at different contents (1, 2, 3, and 4% w/v of the solution) aiming at the elimination of wood material hygroscopicity, and the protection and improvement of other properties. Specifically, the modified and unmodified wood specimens were characterized in terms of physical characteristics (density, equilibrium moisture content, colour, and surface roughness), hygroscopic properties (swelling and absorption percentage) and accelerated weathering performance using xenon light and cycles of moisturizing and drying. The results revealed the dimensional stability of the samples and a significant increase in the hydrophobicity of the modified wood, as well as a significant increase in the resistance to the ageing/weathering factors of oak wood, which was proportional to the increase in the presence of nanoparticles in the Paraloid B72 solution. The colour of the treated samples slightly changed towards darker shades, more reddish and yellowish (with L* to decrease, while a* and b* to slightly increase), though the treated wood revealed higher colour stability. The surface roughness parameters (Ra, Rq, and Rz) increased significantly, restricting the wide application of the treated wood in indoor or outdoor applications where surface roughness constitutes a critical factor. The findings of the current work contribute not only to the production of longer-lasting wood and timber structures, but also to the conservation of the existing weathered heritage timber structures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Approaches to Wood Protection and Preservation)
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13 pages, 8725 KiB  
Article
Menthol-Based Extraction of Fragile Wooden Coffin Lid (7–10th Centuries CE) in Laboratory Archaeology Excavation
by Yong Liu, Jiake Chen, Cunxin Li, Xiangna Han, Hao Wang, Jinsong Bai and Xiaohua Liu
Forests 2024, 15(10), 1830; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15101830 - 20 Oct 2024
Viewed by 1129
Abstract
Block lifting is a key step in stabilizing and removing fragile remains at archaeological excavation sites. Due to its favorable working properties and adhesive effect, menthol has recently been proposed as a volatile binding medium for temporary consolidation in archaeological conservation. This paper [...] Read more.
Block lifting is a key step in stabilizing and removing fragile remains at archaeological excavation sites. Due to its favorable working properties and adhesive effect, menthol has recently been proposed as a volatile binding medium for temporary consolidation in archaeological conservation. This paper presents a case study on the use of menthol in the extraction and restoration of a large wooden coffin lid, approximately 1.9 m long and 0.9 m wide, from tomb 11 (M11) at Xie’ertala, located east of a Xie’ertala town in Hailar City, Inner Mongolia, dating to the 7th to 10th centuries CE. This coffin lid had fragmented into numerous wooden pieces, and was preserved in a relatively arid steppe environment, necessitating the extraction of the lid as a consolidated block. The use of menthol for consolidating and lifting the highly fragmented wooden coffin lid was intended to preserve critical archaeological information while avoiding damage to the underlying objects. An analysis of the physicochemical properties of these wooden remains suggests that the timber used for the coffin lid belongs to a common pine species from the Hulunbuir region. The degradation of the coffin lid was relatively mild, as shown by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) results. Dynamic Vapor Sorption (DVS) tests indicated that the hygroscopicity of the archaeological wood was 23.4%, compared to 21.1% for the reference sample, demonstrating good environmental stability. The safety of menthol as a treatment for fragile wooden remains was evaluated by comparing changes in the morphological and porosity characteristics of the coffin lid before and after menthol treatment. After treatment, the widths of the fissures remained largely unchanged, with all relative variations being less than 1%, and the porosity as well as pore size distribution of the wood showed negligible changes. Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) results showed that only 0.6% of menthol residue remained after 8 days of sublimation. This pilot study demonstrates that menthol is a safe temporary consolidant for block lifting and offers a promising alternative to the widely used cyclododecane. In conclusion, this research provided a new approach for conservators to safely lift similarly large and fragile wood remains during archaeological excavations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Approaches to Wood Protection and Preservation)
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