Weathering Resistance of Poplar Wood Coated by Organosilane Water Soluble Nanomaterials

The potential use of organosilane nanomaterials (nano-zycosil and nano-zycofil) for improving the weathering resistance of poplar wood was evaluated in comparison to common clear coatings (nitrocellulose and polyester lacquer). A 250 μm coating layer was applied by an automatic fi lm applicator at the speed of 150 mm/s. The coated specimens were exposed to a 1000 W xenon arc light source at 65 % relative humidity and temperature of 20 ºC inside a weather-o-meter for 1440 hrs. Among coating materials, nano-zycosil showed the best performance to improve the weathering resistance. Compared to the lacquer-coated samples, the roughness of nanoparticle-coated ones was less affected by weathering. Contact angle measurements indicated that nanozycosil coating had a pronounced decreasing effect on the surface wettability. The combined analyses of SEM and EDX demonstrated that the nanoscale silane layer covered the whole wood surface homogeneously, whereas nitrocellulose and polyester coatings were deposited preferentially in the surface depressions.