Analysis of Adhesive Penetration into Wood using Nano-X-ray Computed Tomography

This study focused on the penetration of adhesive into cell lumens and cell walls. Douglas-fir samples containing an iodinated phenol-formaldehyde adhesive were analyzed using nano-X-ray computed tomography (XCT), X-ray fluorescence microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to observe adhesive penetration in cell walls. A gradient of penetration was observed within the cell wall structure. In addition, these nano-XCT datasets were indexed to previous micro-XCT datasets, which gave the ability to link the nanoscale cell wall penetration to microscale penetration in to the porous network of cell lumens.