Thermal, XRD and spectrophotometric study on artificially degraded woods

Thermogravimetry, differential thermal analysis, differential scanning calorimetry in oxygen flux were used to characterize two wood types: fir and chestnut woods. They were characterized by the peak temperatures of DTA, DTG and DSC curves and by the different mass losses evaluated on the basis of the measured thermal data. The samples were woods in powder obtained during sawing. Complementary characterization of the woods was performed by estimating the crystallinity of cellulose by means of X-ray powder diffraction. In order to simulate the degradation of wet woods, fir and chestnut woods were put into deionised water and into artificial sea water for several weeks; some samples of woods contained Cu and Fe nails to ascertain the effect of these metals on the degradation process. The thermal and X-ray diffraction measurements were then performed on the wet woods, following the same previous procedure. X-ray fluorescence was used to investigate the penetration of metals into wood samples.