Improvement in Monterey pine of the flame retardancy, thermal conductivity, and mechanical performance through incorporating functional epoxy resin

Abstract Monterey pine is a renewable biomass resources with structural and chemical characteristics, but is limited by its flammability, poor mechanical properties, and subpar thermal conductivity (TC). Herein, a thermal conductive and flame retardant the multifunction epoxy resin (MEP) prepolymer was injected into the Monterey pine and subsequently cured. The results showed that impregnated MEP Monterey pine, maintained its original cellular structure under applied loads compared to pristine Monterey pine, thus, giving the composite wood better mechanical integrity than its neat counterpart, which served as thermally conductive pathways within the composites. The TC was measured to be 0.12 Wm⁻¹ K⁻¹ for pristine Monterey pine. Whereas, the infiltrated MEP/wood composite yielded a TC of 0.94 Wm⁻¹ K⁻¹ which correlates to a 683.3% enhancement. Besides, the tensile strength of the prepared composites in the longitudinal and radial directions were observed to be 75.0 and 21.7 MPa, and increased by 63.4% and 152.3% compared to that of pristine Monterey pine, respectively. Combustion tests revealed that the Monterey pine/MEP composites self‐extinguished after ignition and departing from the flame source while the pristine Monterey pine did not. It was deduced that the TC, fire retardancy, and mechanical performance of Monterey pine were simultaneously improved by injecting the multifunctional epoxy resin prepolymer, which provide a wide application potential in heat dissipation furniture field. Highlights The multifunction epoxy enhanced the multiple performance of Monterey pine. The wood composite yielded a high thermal conductivity. Monterey pine/MEP composites managed to self‐extinguish after ignition.