A simple efficient strategy of wood protection derived from essential oil-based superhydrophobic coatings with excellent abrasion and mildew resistance

Wood, a multi-purpose renewable material, is limited to service life and range by its poor dimensional stability. In addition, some wood (e.g. Pinus massoniana Lamb (Masson pine), etc.) is suffering from being prone to mold and other defects due to their high sugar content. For that, a simple efficient strategy of wood protection was proposed that cinnamon essential oil was microencapsulated through in situ polymerization method, and then multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) was treated to the microcapsule surface by electrostatic adsorption to obtain MWCNT@microcapsule composites, which were further fixed to the wood (Masson pine) surface by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as both the adhesive and low surface energy modifier. In the system, the microcapsules acted as anti-mold materials with long-term mildew resistance (no obvious signs for mildew growth and weight variation and the grade value of 0 after 28 days of culture), MWCNT as the enhancer and conductive filler of microcapsules, co-constructing micro-nano rough structure and combining the low surface free energy provided by PDMS to achieve a coating with excellent conductivity (1885.3 S/m) and superhydrophobicity (water contact angle (WCA) of 157.6°). Besides, the coated wood exhibited good abrasion resistance that it could resist 38 sandpaper abrasion cycles. In view of the excellent performance and simple preparation, the coating has a great application prospect for wood protection. Fig. 1. Preparation of modified microcapsule/MWCNT superhydrophobic coating on wood. • A new and simple strategy for multiple protection of wood was proposed. • Microencapsulation realizes the long-term anti-mildew and superhydrophobic. • Multi-walled carbon nanotubes protect essential oil from loss during long-term use.