A Chemical Kinetics Study of the Propionic Anhydride Modification of Corsican Pine. (1):Determination of Activation Energies

ABTRACT The chemical kinetics of wood modification using propionic anhydride with pyridine as solvent/catalyst have been investigated. Reactions at the surface obey pseudo first-order kinetics, by determining rate constants for the reaction at a series of temperatures the activation energy for the surface reactions has been obtained. A comparison of the use of methods of rate constants and initial rates to determine activation energies has shown that the two methods give different values of Ea. It is thought that this discrepancy can be attributed to the change in the number of surface reactive sites with temperature.