Performance of waterborne copper/organic wood preservatives in an AWPA E14 soft-rot laboratory soil bed test using modified soil

摘要

Soil chemistry is known to have a major effect on the degradation of treated wood by basidiomycete fungi in laboratory and exterior ground-contact exposures. However, this topic received little attention from a soft-rot (SR) decay perspective. In the present paper, laboratory SR tests were performed with two different types of forest soils, which were also modified. Test samples, made of Pinus glabra (Walt.) (pine) were treated with four commercial copper/organic waterborne preservatives. In addition, soluble or particulate copper and the organic co-biocides quarternary ammonia compound or tebuconazole, were individually examined. After 19 months of soil bed exposure, moderate to severe degradation was observed in all treated samples in both soils. Surprisingly, microscopic examination showed minimal SR decay. Samples in the neutral soil had extensive tunneling bacterial deterioration and the best performance was observed with both copper/quaternary commercial formulations. Samples in the acidic soil appeared to have some white-rot and bacterial deterioration and all four commercial copper/organic formulations showed good statistically equivalent efficacy. For samples treated with only copper, the particulate copper samples performed statistically equivalent or slightly better than amine copper, while samples treated with only the organic quarternary or tebuconazole performed poorly in both soils.