Leaching of copper based preservatives from wood is usually prevented by adding chromium compounds to copper containing formulations. It seems that suitable substitutes for chromium fixation agents may be amines. In this paper, we report our results on interactions between copper(II) octanoate and ethanolamine (C2H7NO, 2-aminoethanole) with wood or its components. A part of ethanolamine from a wood preservative chemically reacts with wood and does not evaporate from it. This can be seen from retentions and from the changes of FTIR spectra of treated wood. We assume that ethanolamine mainly reacts with hemicelluloses and lignin complex. The unevaporated part of ethanolamine is even higher (for 2%) in the presence of copper(II) octanoate. We think that this difference originates from ethanolamine, which is complexed to copper(II) octanoate. Ethanolamine in wood can be easily determined with the indicator bromphenol blue in ethanol/acetic acid aqueous solution. Wood with ethanolamine turns blue while wood without ethanolamine remains yellow.

Download document (61 kb)
free for the members of IRG. Available if purchased.

Purchase this document