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A comparative thermogravimetric study of waterlogged archaeological and sound woods

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Abstract

Waterlogged archaeological woods Pinus pinaster and Fagus sylvatica L. were analyzed by using TG technique. Degradation processes ascribable to the holocellulose decay were evidenced at nearly the same temperature for sound and archaeological samples. The residual matters at 600 and 900 °C of the sound woods are much lower than those of archaeological waterlogged woods in agreement with the presence of inorganic materials encapsulated during the burial into the marine environment. It was proposed a new protocol to rapidly calculate the maximum water content parameter, which is related to the wood degradation state. TG experiments at variable heating rates were performed to obtain kinetic parameters for the degradation process. The Flynn–Wall–Ozawa and Friedman approaches allowed us to calculate the activation energy, which is significantly different for the sound and the archaeological woods.

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Acknowledgements

The work was financially supported by the University of Palermo. We thank the “Fondazione Banco di Sicilia” which cofinanced the TGA Q5000 IR apparatus (Convenzione PR 4.b/08).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Chimica Fisica “F. Accascina”, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Parco D’Orleans II, 90128, Palermo, Italy

    G. Cavallaro, D. I. Donato, G. Lazzara & S. Milioto

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  1. G. Cavallaro
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  2. D. I. Donato
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  3. G. Lazzara
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  4. S. Milioto
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Correspondence to G. Lazzara.

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Cavallaro, G., Donato, D.I., Lazzara, G. et al. A comparative thermogravimetric study of waterlogged archaeological and sound woods. J Therm Anal Calorim 104, 451–457 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-010-1229-3

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