Evaluation of durability of particleboard made by steam pretreatment of poplar wood particles against of polyporus versicolor

Microbiological degradation of wood and wood products is one of the most important of their disadvantage which Reduce its useful life. There are various methods to increase the natural durability of wood and wood products that in the most of them by using chemical reagents. In the past years the thermal modification as a ecofriendly method has been used in many times. In this research the effects of steam pretreatment on the fungal durability of particleboard were studied. Steam pre-treatment was applied on the particles of poplar wood in a stainless steel reactor at four temperature levels (155, 165, 175 and 185 ºc) and three retention time levels (15, 30 and 45 min). The amounts of Hemi cellulose. Acetone extractives of wood particles as well as EMC and Mass loss of test panels were measured.The results indicated that the steam pretreatment caused to decrease significantly the amount of Hemi cellulose of wood particles, EMC and mass loss of test samples where as the amount of extractives of wood particles increased.According to the results, the variation of Mass loss of particleboard test samples showed a significant correlation to the variation of EMC of test samples,Hemicellulose and extractives amount of wood particles when the wood particles thermally pre-treated at 165ºC for 30 minutes