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A model for attack at a distance from the hyphae based on studies with the brown rot Coniophora puteana
1995 - IRG/WP 95-10104
In timber infested by brown rot fungi, a rapid loss in strength is attributed to production of hydroxyl radicals (HO·) at a distance from the hyphae. The immediate precursor is Fenton's reagent (Fe(II)/H2O2), but the pathways leading to Fe(II) and H2O2 have remained unclear. Cellobiose dehydrogenase, purified from cultures of Coniophora puteana, will couple oxidation of cellodextrins to ...
S M Hyde, P M Wood


Effect of soil chemistry and physical properties on wood preservative leaching
1998 - IRG/WP 98-50111
When treated wood is placed in contact with soil, complicated mass transfer and chemical reactions occur which causes the preservative components to leach from the wood. There are several factors that are known to affect the amount of chemical leached from wood. These are properties of the preservative and carrier, preservative retention, degree of fixation, exposure time, grain orientation, surfa...
Joan-Hao Wang, D D Nicholas, L S Sites, D E Pettry


Gypsum effects on ‘dry rot’ wood degradation as a function of environment
2007 - IRG/WP 07-10624
‘Dry rot’ fungi are a unique group of brown rot fungi that can degrade wood away from ground contact where other fungi fail to colonize. Successfully occupying this niche is partially due to efficient water and nutrient transport, but mobilizing elements, notably calcium (Ca) and iron (Fe), from adjacent building materials has also been implicated in their success. Here we report a series of t...
J Schilling, J Jellison


Chemical Analysis in Production Quality Control at Wood Treatment Plants
2008 - IRG/WP 08-20396
Analysis methods for quality control analysis in wood treatment plants have evolved with the changes in treatment preservative chemistries and analytical instrument technology. The basic hydrometer specific gravity measurements used for solution strength and classic wet chemistry methods for wood have given way to instrumental techniques such as X-ray fluorescence, automatic titrator, and HPLC. No...
P Walcheski, L Jin


Serpula lacrymans – calcium, iron, and foundering wooden boats
2009 - IRG/WP 09-10691
Serpula lacrymans is one of the most destructive wood-degrading brown rot fungi in temperate environments. Its virulence has often been linked to its ability to grow over non-woody materials and extract calcium (Ca) or iron (Fe) to promote wood degradation in buildings. This fungus has also been a severe problem in historic wooden warships and in modern wooden vessels, sometimes leading to founder...
J S Schilling, S M Duncan


Vacuum drying of European oakwood: Color, chemistry and anti-oxidant potency of wood. Improving appearance in forest value added products
2008 - IRG/WP 08-40432
In hardwoods used for decorative and appearance purposes, wood colour is one of the most important factors of wood quality; in addition colour is related with durability and biological decay of wood. Wood discolouration during drying is mainly affected by heat, light, physiological reactions, combinations of reactions, biochemical and chemical reactions, and micro-organisms attack. In freshly fell...
S Sandoval, W Jomaa, F Marc, J-R Puiggali


Degradation of wood veneers by Fenton’s reagents: effects of low molecular weight phenolic compounds on hydrogen peroxide decay and tensile strength loss
2009 - IRG/WP 09-20400
Pine wood (Pinus sylvestris) veneers strips were incubated in acetate buffer containing hydrogen peroxide and iron to mimic mechanisms of brown rot decay and assess the degradation of cellulose through analysis of the tensile properties of the decayed wood. The tensile properties of thin wood strips treated with Fenton system reagents or precursors were determined and correlated to weight loss as ...
Yanjun Xie, R Well, Zefang Xiao, B Goodell, J Jellison, H Militz, C Mai


Protection mechanisms of modified wood against decay by white and brown rot fungi
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10713
The resistance of beech and pine wood blocks treated with 1,3-dimethylol-4,5-dihydroxyethylene urea (DMDHEU) against T. versicolor and C. puteana increased with increasing WPG. Full protection (mass loss below 3%) was reached at WPGs of approximately 15% (beech) and 10% (pine). Metabolic activity of the fungi in the wood blocks was assessed as heat or energy production determined by isothermal mic...
C Mai, P Verma, Yanjun Xie, J Dyckmans, H Militz


Chemical mediated depolymerization of cotton cellulose for the understanding of non-enzymatic fungal decay
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10731
Small, low molecular weight non-enzymatic compounds have been linked to the early stages of brown rot decay as the enzymes involved with holocellulose degradation are found to be too large to penetrate the S3 layer of intact wood cells. The most pronounced of these which were analyzed in this study are hydrogen peroxide, iron, and oxalic. The compounds related to the Fenton reaction: the combinati...
A C Steenkjær Hastrup, B Jensen, F Green III


New insights from NMR, FTIR, X-ray diffraction and physical chemistry into digestive processes in the wood-boring marine crustacean Limnoria quadripunctata
2010 - IRG/WP 10-10732
This paper summarises preliminary findings of a multi-technique exploration of the degradation of lignocellulose in the marine isopod Limnoria quadripunctata. Scanning electron microscopy revealed connections between the digestive gland and the hindgut that would permit the exchange of fluids between the two organs while the food mass is retained in place within the hindgut. This enables enzymes t...
G P Malyon, S LaBarre, N Kervarec, P Carey, J McGeehan, X Xie, A Klüppel, S M Cragg


The Use of Micro-Tensile Testing to Assess Weathering Decay and Oxidative Degradation of Wooden Items
2010 - IRG/WP 10-20433
This paper presents a method to study the weathering performance of wooden items and to assess the oxidative degradation of wood via the Fenton reaction. Weathering resistance and photo-stability of wood was tested using pine wood (Pinus sylvestris) veneer strips measuring approximately 60 µm in thickness. The veneer strips were treated using a reactive chemical to impart surface protection. The ...
C Mai, Yanjun Xie, Zefang Xiao, P D Evans, H Militz


A comparison of the chemistry of alkaline copper and micronized copper treated wood
2010 - IRG/WP 10-30528
This paper discusses the chemistry of the reaction of alkaline copper and micronized copper with wood. The objective of this study is to examine the copper species produced in wood during the fixation reaction using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. The initial experiments (phases 1 to 2) were designed to confirm the effect of time of treatment and solution concentration on the s...
Wei Xue, P Kennepohl, J N R Ruddick


The chemistry of wood degradation by Basidiomycetes studied in a van Krevelen diagram
2013 - IRG/WP 13-10805
The atomic composition ratios of decayed wood by Basidiomycetes are mapped in a van Krevelen diagram. It is shown that the wood residue after decay is chemically reduced, rather than oxidized. A previously developed and verified theoretical model for thermal wood modification, relating atomic composition ratios to moisture sorption and fungal resistance properties has tentatively been applied to w...
W Willems, H Militz


Chemistry of copper preservative treated wood
2014 - IRG/WP 14-30651
The reaction chemistry of micronized copper wood preservatives is fundamentally different from any previous inorganic preservative system. In order to study the chemistry, analytical procedures had to be developed which allowed the determination of the total copper as well as the copper which reacted with the wood forming copper-wood complexes. With the success of this approach it also became poss...
Wei Xue, P Kennepohl, J N R Ruddick


Possible targets of wood modification in brown rot degradation
2014 - IRG/WP 14-40676
Wood modification protects wood from fungal degradation in a non-toxic manner. However, the mechanisms behind the decay resistance in modified wood are currently unknown. The aim of this study was to discuss the i) colonisation, ii) nutrient recognition, iii) transcription, iv) depolymerisation and v) hydrolysis steps in the brown rot degradation progress and explore whether they are inhibited by ...
R Ringman, A Pilgård, G Alfredsen, B Goodell, K Richter


The potential of 2D NIR imaging for wood protection research
2015 - IRG/WP 15-20566
Investigating wood and wood-based materials using infrared spectroscopy has since long been explored. Recently, image-based systems have been developed that are used in food and pharmaceutical industries for rapid screening. Such hyperspectral cameras are able to collect spatial and spectral information simultaneously, resulting in a volume with a spectral profile for each pixel of the image. We p...
J Van den Bulcke, N Defoirdt, W Li, J Van Acker


Evidence for a role for precipitated copper on the chemistry of micronized copper treatments
2016 - IRG/WP 16-30690
Micronized copper preservative treatments of softwoods, result in mobile copper being formed by reaction of the basic copper carbonate (BCC) with the carboxylic acid functional groups in hemicellulose and pectic substances present in wood. Typically, the amount of reacted copper formed is approximately 0.3% Cu m/m. In this paper, two examples are discussed where remaining unreacted basic copper ca...
Wei Xue, P Kennepohl, J N R Ruddick


Enhancing Our Understanding of Brown Rot Mechanisms through Catalytic Pretreatment and Cellulase Cocktail
2018 - IRG/WP 18-10909
A catalytic mechanism, described as the “chelator-mediated Fenton” (CMF) mechanism, is proposed to mimic the non-enzymatic action of brown rot fungi. A CMF treatment was used together with an enzymatic cocktail to study how wood was deconstructed and solubilized. This was done in-part to determine if the treatment mimicked the action of brown rot fungi, but also to explore improved treatment p...
S Tabor, L Orjuela, D Contreras, G Alfredsen, J Jellison, S Renneckar, B Goodell


Wood chemistry completes natural durability as criteria for shorting best provenances in the improvement of teakwood quality: case of five provenances from Ivorian Séguié’s trial
2018 - IRG/WP 18-10920
In order to determine the best provenance for continuing breeding program in Côte d’Ivoire, five provenances of teak planted in 1970 at Séguié’s trial (Agboville, in the south of Côte d’Ivoire), were compared. Fifteen trees (three trees per provenance) composed the sample. Decay resistance and the chemical content especially, non-structural carbohydrates, total phenolics and quinone comp...
F B Niamke, N Amusant, A A Adima, A A Kadio, G Chaix, C Jay-Allemand


Antifouling wood matrix with natural water transfer and micro reaction channels for water treatment
2019 - IRG/WP 19-40853
Wood with abundant nutrition transport channels could be considered as a kind of natural water purifier due to quick and effective passages for separation. Nevertheless, microporosity as main porous structure of initial wood are not enough to effectively separate small molecular, such as organic dye pollutants. Meanwhile, like most filters the fouling resulting in blocking and poor water flux will...
G Liu, D Xu, S Chang, J Hu, Xianjun Li5, Y Liu


Performance of bio-based building materials – durability and moisture dynamics
2020 - IRG/WP 20-20666
When exposed to conditions favourable for decay, bio-based building materials can be susceptible to degradation. Their ability to withstand deterioration over time (performance) depends on the intrinsic or enhanced durability of the material as well as its wetting and drying behaviour. The effect of fungicidal components in wood is known since long. Other material characteristics, such as the mate...
L De Ligne, J Caes, S Omar, J Van den Bulcke, J M Baetens, B De Baets, J Van Acker


The iron reduction by chemical components of wood blocks decayed by wood rotting fungi
2021 - IRG/WP 21-10979
Brown-rot fungi, a group of wood rotting fungi, is well known to be one of major microorganisms that cause the deterioration of wooden buildings in Japan and have been considered to use chelator-mediated Fenton (CMF) reaction in concert with hydrolytic and redox enzymes for degradation of wood cell wall. CMF can be described as a non-enzymatic degradation system that utilizes hydroxyl radicals pro...
R R Kondo, Y Horikawa, K Ando, B Goodell, M Yoshida


Decay capacity and degradation patterns of Xylaria hypoxylon on different wood species
2022 - IRG/WP 22-10985
A host of physical and environmental factors may influence fungal decay including the wood substrate, temperature, moisture, oxygen, light, pH, and nitrogen. Understanding the effects of these factors on fungal decay is important for the effective utilization of wood decay fungi in biotechnological processes and for understanding the role of these organisms in global carbon cycling. The ascomycete...
E Bari, G Daniel, A Singh, J J Morrell


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