Influence of Copper Preservative Type on Earlywood and Latewood Distribution of Copper in Treated Wood

IRG/WP 10-40507

A Zahora

Some of the new water based copper containing wood preservative systems use particulate “micronized” copper as the primary biocide instead of the more traditional soluble amine copper based systems. Studies were conducted to investigate how this difference in the type of copper system might impact both initial and post drying distribution of the preservatives in wood. Of specific interest was to determine the influence of the copper type on the distribution in earlywood and latewood portions of southern pine lumber, where significant differences in wood density might impact preservative loadings for the soluble and particulate systems. Our results support that the copper distributions were distinctly different between the two systems in air-dried boards, although amine copper treated boards had a similar copper distribution immediately after treatment to that observed in dry micronized copper treated boards. Both the air-dried boards treated with micronized copper and the freshly treated amine copper treated boards had distinctly higher copper concentrations in the early wood bands than in the latewood bands on a wood mass basis. After air-drying, this difference is dramatically reduced in all but the outermost growth rings in the amine copper treated boards, suggesting some copper redistribution on drying, as well as copper binding to the wood substance in direct ratio to the amount of wood substance present.


Keywords: amine copper, micronized copper, ACQ, MCQ, copper distribution, earlywood, latewood, air-drying

Conference: 10-05-09/13 Biarritz, France


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