Microscopic Studies of Irradiated Wood by UV light

The wood itself is not resistant to the sunlight, more precisely, to the UV radiation.The wood matter is a mixture of wide range of organic compounds, and the main components are lignin and cellulose.The UV-light induced degradation of these two chemical substances is responsible for the color change of wood.The goal of the study is to describe changes occurring on microscopic scale in wood subjected to the UV irradiation.For this purpose, high resolution scanning microscopy (SEM/HRSEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used [1, 2].This work is a part of a larger project focused on interaction between the wood and TiO2 planar particles under the UV radiation.Our hypothesis is that planar particles of TiO2 are capable of reducing the negative influence of UV light on wood.