Nanomaterials (Aug 2022)

Study of Interactions between Titanium Dioxide Coating and Wood Cell Wall Ultrastructure

  • Petr Svora,
  • Sylwia Svorová Pawełkowicz,
  • Petra Ecorchard,
  • Jiří Plocek,
  • Alena Schieberová,
  • Zdeněk Prošek,
  • Petr Ptáček,
  • Jan Pošta,
  • Piotr Targowski,
  • Petr Kuklík,
  • Ivo Jakubec

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12152678
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 15
p. 2678

Abstract

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Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is used as a UV light absorber to protect wood matter from photodegradation. In this paper, interactions between wood and TiO2 coating are studied, and the efficiency of the coating is evaluated. For the experiments, two wood species were chosen: beech (Fagus sylvatica) and pine (Pinus sylvestris). Molecular and physical modifications in coated and uncoated wood exposed to UV radiation were investigated with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). UV-VIS spectroscopy was used to describe the absorption of UV light by the TiO2 planar particles chosen for the experiment. It was demonstrated that TiO2 coating protects wood against photodegradation to a limited extent. TEM micrographs showed fissures in the wood matter around clusters of TiO2 particles in beech wood.

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