Abstract
In this study, bamboo was treated with an optimized surface furfurylation process. With this process, dimensionally stable and highly biologically durable bamboo material could be prepared without mechanical reduction. The anti-swelling efficiency (ASE) could reach 50% with a low weight percent gain (WPG about 13%). By using SEM, nanoindentation, and Imaging FTIR, we demonstrated that this high performance improvement is attributed to the unique furfuryl alcohol (FA) resin distribution pattern in the modified bamboo, namely a higher concentration of FA resin located in the region near to the surface of bamboo, and what is more, the preferred distribution of FA resin within the cell walls of parenchyma cells, which is known to be the weak point of bamboo both for biological durability and mechanical performances. Such graded modified bamboo could be utilized as a reliable engineering material for outdoor applications.