Evaluation of the distribution of water in wood by use of three dimensional proton NMR volume imaging

Summary

This work confirms that there is sufficient water in wet wood to provide an adequate signal level for detection by NMR-imaging; furthermore, its natural line-width is sufficiently small that these experiments can be performed with modest levels of the imaging gradients. Second, it is clear that this water is sufficiently accessible to chemical reagents introduced from the outer surface of the wood, that the location of such reagents can be established by the perturbations they induce in the properties of the wood-water itself. In this regard, the water is acting effectively as a “molecular amplifier” for the reagent; as a result, the effect of low concentrations of, for example, fungicides, bacteriostatic reagents and other preservatives can easily be followed.