Effects of UV-irradiation on tricine impregnated wood

In this work, a method of stabilizing the color of wood by amino acid tricine was studied. Therefore, an aqueous tricine solution was impregnated in oak, maple and walnut and subsequently dried. After the wood samples had been irradiated under artificial light, the color changes as well as the chemical changes were measured using FTIR. The results showed a significantly increased UV resistance due to the treatment with tricine. Spectroscopic studies supported this observation and showed a reduced degradation of lignin after the treatment with tricine. The reason for this increased UV stability can be explained on the one hand by a change in the reflective properties of the treated wood and on the other hand by the radical scavenger properties of Maillard reaction products.