Abstract
Consolidation of old frail wood by impregnation with polymers is a key step in wooden cultural heritage conservation. Paraloid B72 is an acrylic polymer widely used for this purpose. FTIR spectroscopy, though microdestructive, was found to be a versatile method able to reveal the presence / penetration of Paraloid B72 into the wood structure. A semiquantitative method of investigation was developed with the aim of correlating FTIR data with gravimetric analysis. Relative consolidant retention indexes were calculated based on the integrated areas of relevant absorption bands and compared with gravimetric data of consolidant retention, resulting a fairly good correlation. The method developed on laboratory treated samples made of new sound wood (poplar Populus tremula) was further applied on three case studies, representing heavily degraded wooden artefacts from cultural heritage. Keywords: Paraloid B72, wood consolidation, FTIR, cultural heritage