Thermal modified wood has some advantages over natural wood, including decreased hygroscopicity, increased dimensional stability, and enhanced durability. In this study, European species of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), spruce (Picea orientalis), ash (Fraxinus spp.), and tropical species of tali (Erythrophleum ivorense), and iroko (Chlorophora excelsa) were thermally treated at 180 °C and 210 °C for 1,5 and 2 h, respectively. We evaluated the resistances of the untreated and thermally treated samples to decay induced by the white rot fungus, Trametes versicolor and two brown rot fungi, Coniophora puteana and Postia placenta. In addition, the samples were exposed to the termite Reticulitermes grassei and the longhorn beetle species Hylotrupes bajulus to evaluate their resistance to damageby the insects. During the heat treatment, the mass loss of the samples generally was between 9 and 14%. After the heat treatment, experiments were conducted to determine the effects of white and brown rot fungi on samples of Scots pine and tali, the effect of C. puteana on spruce, and the effects of C. puteana and P. placenta on ash and iroko. In all experiments, the mass loss due to damage from the various fungi was less than 1% for the samples that had been heat treated at 210 °C. The untreated and heat-treated tropical species exhibited higher durability withvery low mass loss and 100% mortality of the insects when attacked by termites, whereas the other wood species had moderate attack. In addition, Hylotrupes bajulus exposure by two standart methods (EN 46 and 47) resulted in similar performances in most cases, although EN 47 treated samples at 210 °C showed improved durability for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and spruce (Picea orientalis).

PCMs (phase change materials) are ideal for thermal management solutions in buildings. This is because they release and store thermal energy during melting and freezing. When this material freezes, it releases a lot of energy in the form of latent heat of fusion or crystallization energy. Conversely, when the material melts, it absorbs the same amount of energy from its surroundings as it changes from a solid to a liquid state. In this study, Oriental spruce (Picea orientalis L.) sapwood was impregnated with three different commercial PCMs. The biological properties and the hygroscopic and thermal performance of the PCM-impregnated wood were studied. The morphology of PCM-impregnated wood was characterized through the use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). PCM-impregnated wood demonstrated low performance in terms of storing and releasing heat during phase change processes, as confirmed by DSC. The results show that PCMs possess excellent thermal stability at working temperatures, and the most satisfying sample is PCM1W, with a phase change enthalpy of 40.34 J/g and a phase change temperature of 21.49 °C. This study revealed that PCMs are resistant to wood-destroying fungi. After the 96 h water absorption test, the water absorption of the wood samples decreased by 28%, and the tangential swelling decreased by 75%. In addition, it has been proven on a laboratory scale that the PCM material used is highly resistant to biological attacks. However, large-scale pilot studies are still needed.