Knowledge of the dynamic changes in the water absorption process of heat-treated wood is important for providing a scientific basis for the reasonable application of heat-treated wood, especially for outdoor applications. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques provide detailed information about the moisture components and moisture transport processes in wood, which are not available with other methods. In this work, water absorption of untreated and heat treated Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata [Lamb.] Hook.) heartwood was investigated using various NMR methods. The heat treatment temperatures were varied between 160 °C and 220 °C. According to the spin-spin relaxation time (T₂), there were two components of water in the samples heat-treated at 160 °C and 180 °C as well as the untreated sample, while three components of water were found in the samples heat-treated at 200 °C and 220 °C, and the mass of each component was calculated by the integral peak areas of the T₂ curve. The amount of bound water and free water in heat-treated samples were less compared to the untreated ones, and the water absorption decreased correspondingly, due to the increasing heat-treated temperature. The results obtained by one dimensional frequency coding indicated that the heat treatment made wood difficult to be accessed by moisture. Besides, NMR images revealed that the free water absorption in latewood was faster than in earlywood, but earlywood could absorb more water than latewood.

Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata [Lamb.] Hook.) is a widely planted species of plantation forest in China, and heat treatment can improve its dimensional stability defects and improve its performance. The wood samples were heat-treated at various temperatures (160, 180, 200, and 220 °C) for 2 h. To clarify the effect of heat treatment on wood hygroscopicity, the equilibrium moisture content (EMC) was measured, the moisture adsorption and desorption rates were determined, the hygroscopic hysteresis was examined, and the Guggenheim, Anderson, and de Boer (GAB) model was fitted to the experimental data. The moisture absorption isotherms of all samples belonged to the Type II adsorption isotherm, but the shape of the desorption isotherm was more linear for heat-treated wood samples, especially when the heat treatment temperature was higher. According to the results analyzed with ANOVA, there were significant differences in equilibrium moisture content between the control samples and the heat-treated samples under the conditions of 30%, 60%, and 95% relative humidity (RH, p < 0.05), and the results of multiple comparisons were similar. The decrease in hygroscopicity was more pronounced in wood treated at higher temperatures. The EMC of the 160–220 °C heat-treated samples of the control samples was 14.00%, 22.37%, 28.95%, and 39.63% lower than that of the control sample at 95% RH. Under low RH conditions (30%), water is taken up mainly via monolayer sorption, and multilayer sorption gradually predominates over monolayer sorption with the increase in RH. The dynamic vapor sorption (DVS) analysis indicated that the heat-treated wood revealed an increase in isotherm hysteresis, which was due to the change in cell wall chemical components and microstructure caused by heat treatment. In addition, the effective specific surface area of wood samples decreased significantly after heat treatment, and the change trend was similar to that of equilibrium moisture content.

Heat treatment is an environmentally friendly method that improves the moisture-resistant properties and increases the service life of timber. In this work, Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata [Lamb.] Hook.) wood was heat-treated in a chamber with steam at temperatures of 160, 180, 200 and 220 °C for 2 h, and the absorption of water was studied by gravimetric analysis and time domain nuclear magnetic resonance (TD-NMR). The results show that both the amount of bound water and free water decreased with the increasing treatment temperature. The water absorption of wood in the radial direction was faster than that in the tangential direction due to the existence of rays, and this difference remained after the heat treatment. The heat treatment at 220 °C had a significant effect on water absorption in the tangential direction of wood, and the moisture content (MC) was approximately 20% lower than that of samples absorbing water in the radial direction. T₂ (spin–spin relaxation time) distributions showed two main components which were associated with bound water and free water, and for samples absorbing water in the radial or tangential direction, there was only a difference in the amount of free water. The amount of free water significantly decreased for the samples that were heat-treated at 220 °C and absorbed water in the tangential direction, indicating that the high-temperature heat-treated samples tended to close the pits in wood cells.