Hydrophobic Modification of Wood Using Tetramethylcyclotetrasiloxane

Hydrophobic surfaces have aroused considerable attention because of their extensive potential applications. In this work, we developed a facile strategy for fabricating hydrophobic and anti-fouling surfaces on wood substrates. The modification was accomplished simply by immerging wood into the tetramethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4H) modifier solution for 5 min. The D4H modified wood was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, and energy dispersive spectrometer. The result shows that the D4H modified wood had good hydrophobicity, and the water contact angle of wood in the radial and cross sections reached 140.1 degrees and 152 degrees. In addition, the obtained hydrophobic wood surface also showed anti-fouling properties, UV resistance and could withstand the tape peel test and finger wiping.