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Topic: Hydrophobic CaCo3 Crystalization in wood  (Read 2446 times)

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Offline Wolfdoge

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Hydrophobic CaCo3 Crystalization in wood
« on: October 24, 2016, 01:17:02 AM »
Hi, I'm new in this forum and I would like to salute everyone in here :)
I'm currently trying to synthesize hydrophobic CaCo3 particles in a wood sample, so it fills the wood cells and cover it's surface. In order to achieve this, I try to simulate a biomineralization process using an organic substrate in a methanol solution, for the synthesized CaCo3 particles to be hydrophobic.
The organic substrate used is Oleic Acid
The proccess is the follow:
The wood sample is submerged in 1M Na2CO3 solution for 24h. Oleic Acid is mixed with a Methanol Solution then added to 1M CaCl2 solution, the wood sample is removed and puto into the CaCl2 solution for 24h.
The wood sample is washed with distiled water and ethanol several times, then dried in an oven for 24 hours.
Even though I can clearly see the CaCo3 particles in the wood, the surface doesn't seem to be hydrophobic, as it still absorbs water. I can't really tell what is wrong with the cristalization process, perhaps I could add stir in the wood submersion, because when the methanol-oleic acid solution is added to CaCl2 solution an organic phase is formed, thus the a portion of the wood sample remains in each phase.
I'm currently out of ideas, any help would be much appreciated.

Offline discodermolide

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Re: Hydrophobic CaCo3 Crystalization in wood
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2016, 04:04:04 AM »
Presumably the hydrophobocity stems from a coating of oleic acid/ester on the surface of the wood.
How much oleic acid are you using?
A piece of wood, bits of wood, logs, trees? How much and in what form?
The methanolic solution forms 2 layers when mixed with the CaCl2 solution, efficient stirring is probably required.
Are you actually removing any surface applied by washing too much with ethanol?
When drying in the oven how much heat are you applying?


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Offline Wolfdoge

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Re: Hydrophobic CaCo3 Crystalization in wood
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2016, 07:26:05 PM »
I'm currently using 50mL of oleic acid, 250mL methanol, 250mL Na2CO3 1M, and 250mL CaCl2 1M.
The wood sample is about 6x1x1 in centimeters.
Nothing is removed when i wash with ethanol.
The wood sample is dryed at 45°C
I'm trying a variation of this proccess:
http://www.paper.edu.cn/download/downPaper/201003-921
And since I couldn't get dodecanoic acid in my country, I used oleic acid instead.

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