Identification of acrylic consolidants in wood by Raman spectroscopy

Consolidation is an important conservation treatment of damaged wooden historical monuments. Successful consolidation is based on sufficient penetration of the consolidant into the wood. For this reason, it is very important to prove the presence of the consolidant in wood. In this study, Raman spectroscopy was used for identification of acrylic consolidants in wood. Prior to the measurement, it was necessary to find the most suitable settings of instrumental parameters of the Raman spectrometer. It was necessary to suppress the fluorescence of the wood itself, as well as the fluorescence of the acrylic consolidants used, as much as possible. Another task was to find the most suitable measuring area from the point of view of the wooden microstructure. This study deals with developing a methodology that examines acrylates in wood that can be successfully used to examine the penetration of acrylate consolidants in wood. Copyright (C) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.