Formic and acetic acids in archaeological wood. A comparison between the Vasa Warship, the Bremen Cog, the Oberländer Boat and the Danish Viking Ships
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Jens Glastrup
Abstract
A method has been developed to analyse and quantify formic and acetic acids in archaeological and fresh wood. The method takes advantage of the fact that, in equilibrium, the gas-phase concentrations of formic and acetic acids over pulverised archaeological wood in a sulfuric acid solution are proportional to their absolute concentrations in wood. The method is based on automated solid-phase micro extraction (SPME) combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Good linearity of the calibration curves was observed. The content of formic and acetic acids in archaeological wood from ships conserved with polyethylene glycol (PEG) was determined. The content of formic acid is related to the intensity of conservation and, hence, the PEG content in wood. Accordingly, formic acid found in the hull of the ships may partly be a result of PEG degradation. The formic acid content in the Vasa warship is, on average, not higher than in the other ships analysed. In contrast, the acetic acid content in PEG-preserved archaeological wood is lower than in fresh wood. The acetic acid content is age-dependent and is lowest in 1000-year-old wood. The acetic acid probably originates from the wood.
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©2006 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Brightness stabilisation of bleached high-yield pulps by novel sulfur-containing inhibitors
- Application of UV-Vis and resonance Raman spectroscopy to study bleaching and photoyellowing of thermomechanical pulps
- Characteristics of NAEM salt-catalyzed alcohol organosolv pulping as a biorefinery
- Effect of poly(ethylene oxide) molecular mass on miscibility and hydrogen bonding with lignin
- Calculation of the relative bonded area and scattering coefficient from sheet density and fibre shape
- Formic and acetic acids in archaeological wood. A comparison between the Vasa Warship, the Bremen Cog, the Oberländer Boat and the Danish Viking Ships
- Time-domain 1H NMR characterization of the liquid phase in greenwood
- Chemical reaction of alkoxysilane molecules in wood modified with silanol groups
- Dimensional stability of MDF panels produced from heat-treated fibres
- Multivariate modeling of MDF panel properties in relation to wood fiber characteristics
- Viscoelastic behaviour of solid wood under compressive loading
- The creep of wood destabilized by change in moisture content. Part 3: The influence of changing moisture history on creep behavior
- Air permeability of aspen veneer and glueline: Experimentation and implications
- Fracture cleavage analysis of PVAc latex adhesives: Influence of phenolic additives
- Effect of a waterproof agent on gypsum particleboard properties
- Effects of semi-isostatic densification on anatomy and cell-shape recovery on soaking
- Analytical tools to predict changes in properties of oriented strandboard exposed to the fungus Postia placenta
- The effect of CaCl2 on growth rate, wood decay and oxalic acid accumulation in Serpula lacrymans and related brown-rot fungi
