Photocurable resin/nanocellulose composite coatings for wood protection

tNovel UV-light curable methacrylic-siloxane-cellulose composite coatings for wood protection were pre-pared, fully characterized and, then, applied on walnut wood samples in order to assess the potentialprotective performances of the wooden treated substrates, such as hydrophobicity and surface prop-erties. A comparison between nanocellulose and microcellulose filled coatings (5 and 10 wt%) was alsoperformed. Thermal-mechanical analysis highlighted the higher effectiveness of nanocellulose in increas-ing the glass transition temperature, improving thermal and dimensional stability and stiffness of theneat photoresin with respect to microcellulose. A more pronounced increase of hydrophobicity (contactangle and water capillarity), surface hardness (Shore D and pencil scratch tests) of the neat UV-lightcured matrix filled with nanocellulose and applied on wood was, finally, observed in comparison tomicrocellulose composites. © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.