Leaching of the copper component from full scale decking boards during one summer season

IRG/WP 09-50260

F G Evans

The leaching of copper has been tested in laboratory and in outside exposure for freshly treated pine sapwood samples with three different copper preservatives, Cu HDO, copper quat and copper triazoles. We found in the laboratory leaching test that a fixation with warming to 60 °C (140 °F) for 48 hours without drying and then drying in the laboratory in room temperature gave the lowest leaching of copper. We also found that surface treatments with wood oils reduced the leaching, and that washing of the surface before testing had no effect. Full scale decking board samples (0.25 m2) were then exposed outdoors for rain. The rain water was collected and analysed for copper. After one summer season (about 600 mm rain) we found that the leaching differ for the three preservatives. All samples with a water borne surface treatment had the lowest leaching, about half the amount of untreated.


Keywords: copper preservative, copper HDO, copper quat, copper triazole, leaching, full scale, rain water, surface treatments

Conference: 09-05-24/28 Beijing, China


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