Abstract
Possible applications for synchrotron radiation tomographic microscopy in the field of wood research were tested and evaluated at the TOMCAT beamline (TOmographic Microscopy and Coherent rAdiology experimenTs) at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) at the Paul Scherrer Institute (Villigen, Switzerland). For this study, small cylindrical samples (∅ 1 and 3 mm) were examined with different experimental setups resulting in a nominal voxel size of approximately 1.48 × 1.48 × 1.48 and 3.7 × 3.7 × 3.7 μm3, respectively. Suitability of the TOMCAT microscope for 3D investigations of wood anatomy was tested on several softwood and hardwood species revealing microscopic features (e.g. tyloses, wall thickenings or pits) down to the nominal pixel size. The results suggest that even features in the sub-voxel range can be made visible. Tomographic microscopy was also tested for wood technological applications, i.e. penetration behaviour of a wood preservative and also of three wood adhesives (poly-urethane resins) with different viscosities. Although the experiments with the preservative yielded no clear results, the method seems suitable for examining the penetration of the different adhesives. The adhesive penetrates the wood mainly by the vessels where it can be easily discerned from the wood structure.

















Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bucur V (2003a) Techniques for high resolution imaging of wood structure: a review. Meas Sci Technol 14:R91–R98
Bucur V (2003b) Non-destructive characterisation and imaging of wood. Springer, Berlin
De Vetter L, Cnudde V, Masschaele B, Jacobs PJS, Van Acker J (2006) Detection and distribution analysis of organosilicon compounds in wood by means of Sem-Edx and Micro-Ct. Mater Charact 56:39–48
Dodd JD (1948) On the shapes of cells in the cambial zone of Pinus silvestris L. Am J Bot 35:666–682
Donaldson LA, Lausberg MJF (1998) Comparison of conventional transmitted light and confocal microscopy for measuring wood cell dimensions by image analysis. IAWA J 19(3):321–336
Fengel D (1966) Electron microscopic contributions to the fine structure of beechwood (Fagus sylvatica L.)—part III: the fine structure of the pits in beechwood. Holz Roh Werkst 24(6):245–253
Groso A, Abela R, Stampanoni M (2006) Implementation of a fast method for high resolution phase contrast tomography. Opt Express 14(18):8103–8110
Hubbell JH, Seltzer SM (2004) Tables of X-ray mass attenuation coefficients and mass energy-absorption coefficients, version 1.4. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg. Available online at: http://physics.nist.gov/xaamdi. Cited 15 July 2008
Jayme G, Azzola FK (1965) Texture and topochemistry of beechwood pits and pitmembranes (Fagus sylvatica L.). Holz Roh Werkst 23:41–49
Kitin P, Sano Y, Funada R (2003) Three-dimensional imaging and analysis of differentiating secondary xylem by confocal microscopy. IAWA J 24(3):211–222
Kitin P, Fujii T, Abe H, Funada R (2004) Anatomy of the vessel network within and between tree rings of Fraxinus lanuginosa (Oleaceae). Am J Bot 91(6):779–788
Knebel W, Schnepf E (1991) Confocal laser scanning microscopy of fluorescently stained wood cells: a new method for three-dimensional imaging of xylem elements. Trees 5:1–4
Macedo A, Vaz CMP, Pereira JCD, Naime JM, Cruvinel PE, Crestana S (2002) Wood density determination by X- and gamma-ray tomography. Holzforschung 56(5):535–540
Mannes D, Lehmann E, Niemz P (2007) Tomographic investigations of wood from macroscopic to microscopic scale. In: Proceedings of the 15th symposium on non-destructive wood testing. Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota, Duluth and USDA Forest Products Laboratory
Niemz P, Mannes D, Haase S, Lehmann E, Vontobel P (2004) Untersuchungen zur Verteilung des Klebstoffes im Bereich der Leimfuge mittels Neutronenradiographie und Mikroskopie. Holz Roh Werkst 62:424–432
Stampanoni M, Groso A, Isenegger A, Mikuljan G, Chen Q, Meister D, Lange M, Betemps R, Henein S, Abela R (2007) TOMCAT: a beamline for tomographic microscopy and coherent radiology experiments. Synchrotron Radiat Instrum 879(Pts 1–2):848–851
Steppe K, Cnudde V, Girard C, Lemeur R, Cnudde JP, Jacobs P (2004) Use of X-ray computed microtomography for non-invasive determination of wood anatomical characteristics. J Struct Biol 148:11–21
Timell TE (1978) Helical thickenings and helical cavities in normal and compression woods of Taxus baccata. Wood Sci Technol 12(1):1–15
Trtik P, Dual J, Keunecke D, Mannes D, Niemz P, Stähli P, Kaestner A, Groso A, Stampanoni M (2007) 3D imaging of microstructure of spruce wood. J Struct Biol 159:46–55
Van den Bulcke J, Masschaele B, Dierick M, Van Acker J, Stevens M, Hoorebeke Van (2008) Three-dimensional imaging and analysis of infested coated wood with X-ray submicron CT. Int Biodeterior Biodegradation 61:278–286
Williams S (1942) Secondary vascular tissues of the oaks indigenous to the United States—II. Types of tyloses and their distribution in Erythrobalanus and Leucobalanus. Bull Torrey Bot Club 69(1):1–10
Acknowledgments
The authors express their thanks to Mr G. Mikuljan for his help in the sample preparation and Dr D. Keunecke, Mr P. Hass and Ms Y. Herbers for their assistance during the measurements.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mannes, D., Marone, F., Lehmann, E. et al. Application areas of synchrotron radiation tomographic microscopy for wood research. Wood Sci Technol 44, 67–84 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-009-0257-2
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-009-0257-2


