Wood has various features such as lightness, stiffness, heat insulation, humidity adjustment, etc., and has been widely used as building materials, furniture and tools for a long time. However, it is easily penetrated by water. In this study, surface treatments of woods were carried out using solgel solutions containing a super absorbent polymer in order to reduce penetration of water into wood. It was found that the treated wood could well be prevented from water penetration. Moreover, we discovered that addition of TiO2 fine particles in the sol-gel solution could not only reduce the water penetration property but also provide the excellent weight increase rate with a humidity rise to the surface treated woods. By the results of SEM-EDX analysis, it was suggested that siloxane polymer structures were formed in at least 0.5mm thickness range from the surface of treated woods. And it was also suggested that there were hydrophobic parts in the siloxane polymer structures, which cause the reduction of water penetration to the surface-treated woods.
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