Metal fluoride nanoparticles are promising because of their low water solubility, which reduces the need for fixatives required in widely used active ingredient in wood preservatives such as copper and boron. Wood specimens treated with fluoride sols of MgF2 and CaF2 have been tested against brown-rot fungi (Coniophora puteana and Rhodonia placenta) in accordance with EN 113 and against termites (Coptotermes formosanus) in accordance with EN 117. The sols were synthesized using fluorolytic sol-gel synthesis (Krahl, et al. 2016). On exposure to brown-rot fungi, the mass loss of the specimens treated with nano metal fluorides was found to be lower than the mass loss of the control specimens (Usmani, et al. 2018). Thus, the protective mechanism of the nanoparticles that makes them effective against brown-rot fungi was investigated in-vitro against Coniophora puteana, Rhodonia placenta, and Trametes versicolor with an agar-test developed by Pantano et al. (2018). The anti-fungal activity was determined by the size of the colony diameter. The difference in the size of the diameter of the colony show if the fluoride nanoparticles show similar effectiveness towards both brown-rot and white-rot fungi. Thus, the in-vitro test would explain the protective mechanism of fluoride nanoparticles against fungi.

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