Original Articles
Shen Juna*, Feng Qi, Martin Oh
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to investigate five antioxidants added to Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) fiber before hot pressing in order to reduce aldehyde emissions in order to avoid the oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids during medium density fiberboard (MDF) production. Panels were produced with these fibers by means of a laboratory press. Aldehydes and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions of these boards were characterized for a period of 28 days in environmental test chambers employing Tenax-TDS/GC/MS analytics. The ability of five antioxidants to reduce aldehyde emissions was examined, and the results were compared with the emissions from control panels. Almost all of antioxidants (except ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) provided high reductions of total aldehyde emissions (72%-90% after 3 days). A high amount of butylatedhydroxytoluene (BHT) and butylatedhydroxyanisole (BHA) were detected on the 28 days. Dilaurylthiodipropionate (DLTP) and tertiary-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) were the best antioxidants considering the adverse effect on other VOCs.