Structure and chemical properties of fresh and degraded wood: their effects on radiocarbon activity measurements
Date
1979
Authors
Head, Malcolm John
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Abstract
The complexity of the chemical makeup of wood is such that it is very
difficult to define the inter-relationship of the various major components.
This thesis has endeavoured to outline inconsistencies found by various
researchers with respect to C-14 activity measurements on whole wood and
chemical fractions of wood.
Wood chemistry literature has been surveyed extensively in an attempt
to clarify the relationship between the major components of wood from different
tree species.
Many pretreatment techniques used to isolate an uncontaminated chemical
wood fraction for C-14 activity measurements have been described in the literature.
Several of these techniques have been studied with respect to both
fresh and degraded wood in order to compare their efficiency in isolating a
viable chemical fraction which is free of any possible contaminating components.
It has been concluded that, because of the variability in chemical makeup of
wood from different tree species, the only reliable chemical fraction is pure
cellulose.
The problem of solvent retention in wood after extraction processes has
been examined using C-14 labelled solvents, and a method minimizing solvent
retention has been proposed.
The structure of a series of fossil wood samples has been examined using
techniques such as X-ray diffraction spectrometry, and it has been found that
the degree of structural degradation can be measured. The results are inconclusive
with regard to the categorization of possible degradation mechanisms,
but they indicate that the possibility exists that some categorization may be
obtained from a more detailed study.
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Wood--Chemistry, Radiocarbon dating
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Thesis (Masters)
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