This study extends our observations of the distribution of copper in treated wood. A small wood block was cut from a southern pine batten that had been treated with a particulate-copper preservative and similar sized block was cut from a batten that had been treated with a copper-amine preservative. Both blocks were imaged using X-ray micro-computed tomography. We obtained tomograms of each treated wood block and identified and visualized the different phases in tomographic images-wood (earlywood and latewood), void space and copper. We find that copper is abundant in the growth ring adjacent to the surface of each of the treated wood samples. Copper accumulates in rays and resin canals, most notably in wood treated with the particulate-copper preservative. We were able to detect copper in the cell walls of treated wood and see differences in the spatial distribution of cell-wall copper in wood treated with the two different copper preservatives. We conclude that X-ray micro-CT is a useful technique for visualizing the spatial distribution of copper in large voids in wood and also in the cell walls of wood treated with copper-amine or particulate-copper preservatives.

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