Summary

To understand the swelling phenomenon of wood in liquids,the saturated amount of adsorption of liquids onto wood and the standard free energy changes of the adsorption were determined. The saturated amount of adsorption obtained by regression for several liquids decreased with increasing molecular size of the solvents. The mechanism of wood swelling is discussed systematically taking all the liquids examined in previous experiments into account. Since methanol molecules require more energy for release from cohesive interactions within bulk liquids in the adsorption onto pre-swollen wood,the values of free energy change of adsorption for methanol were lower than the values for acetone,although the relative swelling with methanol was higher. These results suggest that although the cohesive interaction within the bulk liquids reduces adsorptivity,the phenomenon of wood swelling is influenced not only by monolayer adsorption but also by multilayer adsorption. Therefore,the cohesive interaction within the bulk liquids reduces adsorptivity but enhances the condensation which strongly influences the swelling of wood.