[Wolfdoge]

Hi, I'm new in this forum and I would like to salute everyone in here
I'm currently trying to synthesize hydrophobic CaCo₃ particles in a wood sample, so it fills the wood cells and cover it's surface. In order to achieve this, I try to simulate a biomineralization process using an organic substrate in a methanol solution, for the synthesized CaCo₃ particles to be hydrophobic.
The organic substrate used is Oleic Acid
The proccess is the follow:
The wood sample is submerged in 1M Na₂CO₃ solution for 24h. Oleic Acid is mixed with a Methanol Solution then added to 1M CaCl₂ solution, the wood sample is removed and puto into the CaCl₂ solution for 24h.
The wood sample is washed with distiled water and ethanol several times, then dried in an oven for 24 hours.
Even though I can clearly see the CaCo₃ particles in the wood, the surface doesn't seem to be hydrophobic, as it still absorbs water. I can't really tell what is wrong with the cristalization process, perhaps I could add stir in the wood submersion, because when the methanol-oleic acid solution is added to CaCl₂ solution an organic phase is formed, thus the a portion of the wood sample remains in each phase.
I'm currently out of ideas, any help would be much appreciated.

[discodermolide]

Presumably the hydrophobocity stems from a coating of oleic acid/ester on the surface of the wood.
How much oleic acid are you using?
A piece of wood, bits of wood, logs, trees? How much and in what form?
The methanolic solution forms 2 layers when mixed with the CaCl₂ solution, efficient stirring is probably required.
Are you actually removing any surface applied by washing too much with ethanol?
When drying in the oven how much heat are you applying?

[Wolfdoge]

I'm currently using 50mL of oleic acid, 250mL methanol, 250mL Na₂CO₃ 1M, and 250mL CaCl₂ 1M.
The wood sample is about 6x1x1 in centimeters.
Nothing is removed when i wash with ethanol.
The wood sample is dryed at 45°C
I'm trying a variation of this proccess:
http://www.paper.edu.cn/download/downPaper/201003-921
And since I couldn't get dodecanoic acid in my country, I used oleic acid instead.