Sorption of Copper by Wood Constituents

Belford, Myers and Preston 1 have directed attention to the fact that cellulose and wood absorb copper ions and that they appear to be regularly spaced on a grid pattern not corresponding to the unit cell of cellulose. Bayley and Rose 2 consider that α-cellulose has only a small cation binding power and that the complexes formed in wood consist of metal cations bound on the non-cellulosic constituents. Belford et al. 3 observed that in, wood impregnated with preservatives containing copper-salts the middle lamella in particular stained very deeply with dithio-oxamide. In the work now reported the copper sorption of isolated wood constituents has been measured and the copper has been located in sections of treated wood by staining methods and electron microscopy.