1. RESEARCH ATTACHMENT REPORT
BY:
NUR IZREEN FARAH BINTI AZMI
PLACE OF ATTACHMENT:
DIVISION OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND
ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING, COLLEGE OF LIFE SCIENCE
AND BIOTECHNOLOGY, KOREA UNIVERSITY

2.  Goals of the research attachment:
 To augment my experience as a post graduate student in
research area;
 To gain new knowledge, skills;
 To learn Korean culture in terms of their working habit;
 Prepare for careers which involved international cooperation and
collaboration;
 Improve the bilateral collaboration between Faculty of Forestry
and Korea University.

3.  Justify choice of university/Impact of technology:
 Korea University : Prestigious institutions in South Korea;
specialized laboratory called Wood Microbiology and Wood
Protection Lab equipped with new advanced technology;
 Research focused on preservation of timber (wood protection) and
forestry sector environmental engineering (environmental
engineering in forest products);
 Determination of fixation and leaching characteristics of CCA
treated wood using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometry
(ICP);
 Fungal DNA extraction using PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction).

4.  How the research attachment has enhanced your
experience as a postgraduate student:
 Conducting research under mentorship of world class
researchers, in collaboration with a dominant professor and
research teamwork from oversea;
 A lot of new knowledge and skills enhancement have been
learned during this attachment through conducting small
research;
 Learned the way Korean people worked and loved their job.

5. PART I: RESEARCH STUDY
 TITLE:
 Accelerated Aging Exposure of Phenol Formaldehyde Compreg
(Hevea Brasiliensis) Wood Coated with Urea as Formaldehyde
Scavenger
 OBJECTIVES:
 To test the leachability of phenolic resin in compreg wood, Hevea
Brasiliensis using accelerated aging test method;
 To investigate the effect of urea coating on leaching properties of
compreg wood.

6.  METHODOLOGY
IMPREGNATION TREATMENT (Done in Faculty of Forestry UPM)
 150 x 50 x 5-mm sample of rubberwood (Hevea Brasiliensis) was vacuum
pressure impregnated with 30% Lmw-PF separately in an impregnation
apparatus;
 Treating cycle: 1) 15-min initial vacuum of 85 kPa
2) Chamber was filled with treating solution under vacuum
3) Pressure of 340 kPa was applied for 30 min at ambient
temperature
 Pre-cured samples at 60⁰C for 9, 12 and 15 h, followed by hot press at
150⁰C for 30 min;
 Post coated by dipping the compressed wood with 20, 30 and 40% urea
solutions for 1 min;
 Aligned parallel to each other to form a three-layer laminated compreg
wood.

7. Accelerated Aging Test (Cyclic boil-dry (BD)) (Wood Microbiology Lab,
KU)
 Leaching properties of compreg wood were performed using 10 cycles of
cyclic boil-dry test.
 Five replicates of 2 x 2 x 2 cm specimen from each
treatment combination were oven-dried at 107 °C
for 3 3/4h and weight to obtain the initial weight;
 Specimens were subjected to a vacuum-pressure-soaking
to withdraw the air from the wood and saturate the
specimens with the leaching water;
 Immediately submerged in a volume of boiling water
10 times that of the specimens for 10 min prior to leaching;
 Allowed to drain momentarily, oven-dried at107 °C
for 3 3/4h;

8.  Specimens were reweighed to obtain the final weight;
 Percentage of weight loss (WL) was calculated using Equation 1 to
determine the percentage of polymer leached out from the treated samples;
WL (%)= Woi – Wfi
_________ x 100
Woi
Woi= Oven-dry weight before test, g
Wfi = Oven-dry weight after test, g
 The same procedure was repeated until 10 cycles;
 5 cycles is correlated to 1 year of outdoor aging (River, 1994);
 The samples then were wrapped with aluminum foil and conditioned in
conditioning room until the next cycle.

9.  RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Curing Urea Weight Loss (%)
time
Cycle Cycle Cycle Cycle Cycle Cycle Cycle Cycle Cycle Cycle
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
9h No urea 0.670 0.212 0.142 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
20% 0.670 0.249 0.284 0.108 0.142 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
30% 0.564 0.282 0.141 0.107 0.107 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
40% 0.494 0.249 0.180 0.070 0.035 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
12h No urea 0.499 0.334 0.163 0.107 0.102 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
20% 0.633 0.321 0.255 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
30% 0.481 0.172 0.172 0.106 0.068 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
40% 0.554 0.175 0.141 0.104 0.039 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
15h No urea 0.537 0.181 0.070 0.106 0.109 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
20% 0.471 0.179 0.074 0.035 0.108 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
30% 0.491 0.176 0.069 0.070 0.036 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
40% 0.465 0.198 0.099 0.135 0.025 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
Note: Data of WL presented is the different between the WL of treated samples and control samples

10. 0.700
0.600
Weight Loss Prior to Leaching (%)
0.500
0.400
0.300
0.200
0.100
0.000
No 20% 30% 40% No 20% 30% 40% No 20% 30% 40%
urea urea urea urea urea urea urea urea urea urea urea urea
9h 12h 15h
Treatment combinations
Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3 Cycle 4 Cycle 5 Cycle 6 Cycle 7 Cycle 8 Cycle 9 Cycle 10

11.  CONCLUSIONS
 The leachability test using accelerated aging method has been
successfully done in Wood Protection Lab, College of Life Science and
Biotechnology, KU;
 Result showed that the amount of preservatives leached out from the
compreg product (Havea Brasiliensis) treated with LMW-PF admixed
with urea during 10-day of leaching course was less than 1% and was
reduced with the leaching cycles;
 Addition of 30% and 40% urea based on solid PF reduced the
percentage of polymer leach out. This is due to the presence of urea
which increased the Mw of resin system and prevent the polymer leach
out.

12. PART II: LEARNING OUTCOME &
EXPERIENCE
The Korean Society of Wood Science & Technology (KSWST)
Conference
 Venue: Daegu Exhibition & Convention Center, 1676, Sangyeok-
dong, Buk-gu, Daegu 702-712, South Korea.
Poster Presentation

13.  Oral Presentation

15. Small Research I
 Title : Laboratory evaluation of wood vinegar and copper admixture as a
potential anti-stain chemical for wood.
 Objectives : To determine copper preservatives addition in wood vinegar on
discoloration of treated wood under laboratory condition;
 Materials : 1) Radiata pine samples (7mm x 20mm x 70mm)
2) 12 spp stain
3) 8 spp mold fungi
4) Wood vinegar- dark liquid produced during charcoal
production;
- provide anti-fungal properties

16.  METHODS
 Radiata pine samples and prepared petri dish were sterilized using
autoclave at 121°C for 20 min;
 Samples were dipped in prepared wood vinegar for 3 min and drained for 3
min before being arranged in petri dish (2 samples per plate);

17.  Prepared stain and mold fungi was sprayed on the samples surface in petri
dish;
 The samples in petri dish was then incubated at 25°C for 8 weeks;
 The discoloring ability of crude wood vinegar/copper mixture was examined
after 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks. The fungal growth of each fungicide at each
concentration was measured.

18.  Small Research II
 Title : Fixation of CCA-treated Malaysian Tropical Hardwood
 Objective : To test the fixation characteristic of Ramin and Geronggang
treated with CCA
 Materials : 1) Ramin and Geronggang samples (20mm x 20mm x
20mm)
2) CCA preservatives (1.7 and 1.8% )

19.  Extraction Method
 Ramin and Geronggang samples were vacuum for 1h to ease the wood
submerged in water.
 The samples then were boiled in 100°C water for 2 days (8h for each day)
 Water was changed every 3h.
 The extraction process was ended with boiling the
samples in 5% ethanol to remove all the extract.
 The samples were then left in conditioning room until
constant weight or 5 days.
 The constant weight and volume was measured to
determine the extract loss.

20.  Impregnation treatment
 The initial weight and dimension of sample was measured;
 Samples were treated using a full-cell process consisting of a 30-min initial
vacuum of 760 mm Hg;
 The cylinder was filled with 1.7 and 1.8% CCA solution, followed by a
pressure of 14 kg/[cm.sup.2] until refusal;
 Samples were taken out, the excess solution was wiped off with a cloth and
the final weight was measured.

21.  CCA Fixation
 The rate of fixation in CCA-treated Ramin and Geronggang samples were
evaluated using the expressate method (McNamara 1989);
 Blocks were squeezed in a hydraulic press to express free treating solution
from the wood void spaces;
 The expressed solution was analyzed for its total chromium, copper and
arsenic content using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission
Spectroscopy (ICP-AES).