A Study on Surface Physicochemical Properties of Woods Treated in Emulsion of Waterborne Varnish with Sesame and Grape Seed Oil

Aims: An eco-friendly coating emulsion prepared with mixture of oils of sesame and grape seed and alkyd-based waterborne varnish. The prepared emulsion applied four different wood substrates (walnut, beech, cedar and fir) in order to be investigated for some selected surface properties.

Study Design: Several test methods were used to evaluate surface physicochemical properties of the coatings. The results obtained may be suggested for the selection of the best varnish-emulsion formulation for the improvement wood substrates and could provide useful evaluation of the test methods employed.

Methodology: The wood species of Beech (Fagus sylvatica), Walnut (Juglans regia), Cedar (Cedrus libani) and Fir (Abies nordmandiana) were selected for the investigation. Commercially available alkyd based waterborne varnish was supplied ready to use form.

Both sesame oil (Sesamum indicum L.) and grape seed oil (Vitis vinifera L.) were obtained from a company that produces them by the cold press technique commercially. Both oils were used as supplied, without additional processing. These oils were added to varnish at 10% and 20% proportions (volume/volume). The 5 μl of distilled water (surface tension of 72.6 mN /m) was applied on wood surface by a sessile droplet method to measure surface contact angles. The surface hardness and scratch resistance of the cured varnish layers on wood substrates were measured with using pencil hardness test procedure according to ASTM-D-3363 standard. Cross cut test also conducted according to EN ISO 2409 standard.

Experimental Findings: It was found that coated walnut samples show 9.8 to 13.5° higher contact angle values in all directions while other three wood samples only show marginally different values (0.1 to 4.3°). The highest contact value of 35.9° and 35.8° was found with samples of Wg20 and Wg10 which treated 20- and 10% grape seed oil proportions in varnish emulsion. The oils of sesame and grape seed typically contain various proportions of fatty acids fractions which are constituents of a carboxylic acid with a long, aliphatic tail. These groups could be created a strong bond in combination with alkyd resin on wood surface. However, the surface energy distribution show only marginally changes regardless of treatment levels and conditions. Therefore, there is not any clear advantage observed on surface wood surface energy levels with coating applications. For 10% grape seed oil/varnish emulsion conditions, the hardness of coated surfaces found to be 3H, 3H, 2H, 2H for walnut, beech, fir and cedar, respectively. At 20% grape seed oil/varnish coatings, all coating surfaces show H level range. For cross hatch experiments, marginally similar trend was observed with 10-and 20% grape seed oil/varnish and 10% sesame oil/varnish emulsion coated wood species. Moreover, it was ranked 2 for fir, ranked 3 for beech and ranked 4 for cedar wood at 20% sesame oil/varnish emulsion coatings. It is noticeable that a correlation was observed between cross cut and surface scratch resistance properties with coated surfaces.