Chemical characterisation of the whole plant cell wall of archaeological wood: an integrated approach

Wood artefacts undergo complex alteration and degradation during ageing, and gaining information on the chemical composition of wood in archaeological artefacts is fundamental to plan conservation strategies. In this work, an integrated analytical approach based on innovative NMR spectroscopy procedures, gel permeation chromatography and analytical pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) was applied for the first time on archaeological wood from the Oseberg collection (Norway), in order to evaluate the chemical state of preservation of the wood components, without separating them. We adopted ionic liquids (ILs) as non-derivatising solvents, thus obtaining an efficient dissolution of the wood, allowing us to overcome the difficulty of dissolving wood in its native form in conventional molecular solvents. Highly substituted lignocellulosic esters were therefore obtained under mild conditions by reacting the solubilised wood with either acetyl chloride or benzoyl chloride. A phosphytilation reaction was also performed using 2-chloro-4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaphospholan. As a result, the functionalised wood developed an enhanced solubility in molecular solvents, thus enabling information about modifications of lignin, depolymerisation of cellulose and structure of lignin-carbohydrate complexes to be obtained by means of spectroscopic (2D-HSQC-NMR and 31P-NMR) and chromatographic (gel permeation chromatography) techniques. Py-GC-MS was used to investigate the degradation undergone by the lignocellulosic components on the basis of their pyrolysis products, without any pre-treatment of the samples. The application of all these combined techniques enabled a comprehensive characterisation of the whole cell wall of archaeological wood and the evaluation of its state of preservation. High depletion of carbohydrates and high extent of lignin oxidation were highlighted in the alum-treated objects, whereas a good preservation state was found for the untreated wood of the Oseberg ship. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]