Abstract
The hygroscopicity and thermodynamic properties of Pinus sylvestris L. wood from a coffin allegedly holding the remains of famous Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616) were studied using the 15 °C and 35 °C isotherms fitted to the Guggenheim–Anderson–de Boer model and comparing them with the isotherms of recently felled wood of the same species. In addition, using infrared spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR) and X-ray diffractograms, the functional groups were determined and the crystallinity and organization of the cell wall components were analyzed. The absence of the 1740 cm−1 group indicates hemicellulose degradation in the archaeological wood, and the X-ray diffractograms show a considerable decrease in cellulose crystallinity and disorganization of the cellulose crystallites. The greater availability of active –OH groups means that the archaeological wood isotherms are above the juvenile and mature wood isotherms, and therefore the thermodynamic balance in the sorption of the archaeological wood is greater.
Highlights
For thousands of years, humans have used wood as a material for applications such as civil and naval construction, architecture, carpentry, furniture making and sculpture, and many pieces of wood have helped to write the history of humanity
The isotherms obtained both in the reference wood and the archaeological wood fitted to a type II sigmoid typical of cellulose-containing materials [31]
The isotherms of the juvenile wood (Figure 3, supplementary material: Table S1) are below the isotherms of the mature wood, as previously reported by [23] in Abies pinsapo (Boiss.) wood, and the isotherms of both these woods are in turn below those of the archaeological wood, in both adsorption and desorption, at 15 ◦ C and 35 ◦ C
Summary
Humans have used wood as a material for applications such as civil and naval construction, architecture, carpentry, furniture making and sculpture, and many pieces of wood have helped to write the history of humanity. Signs of biotic deterioration in archaeological wood are mainly caused by fungi and bacteria that degrade cell wall components. These degrading agents and their effects have been widely studied [2,3,4,5], and because they selectively degrade cell wall components, a hygroscopic study of archaeological
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