The scientific goal of this project is to modify phenol-formaldehyde pre-polymers and use as novel treatment agent for birch wood products to obtain improved properties. During this project the two main hypothesis will be researched:

1) Phenol-formaldehyde pre-polymer can be chemically modified by esterification using acid chlorides with different length of aliphatic chains with goal to create a new functional molecule which can be used for wood cell wall modification.

2) Birch wood products treated with modified PF pre-polymers will show improved properties compared to unmodified and conventional PF impregnated wood.

Place of project implementation – Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry (LSIWC), Dzerbenes str. 27, Riga, LV-1006 (koks@edi.lv).

Planned total duration of the project – 13 months.