Journal of Alloys and Compounds 362 (2004) 107–115 Studies on the wood tissue substitution by silica and calcite during the preservation of fossil wood Jakub Siurek a , Pierre Chevallier b , Chul-Un Ro c , Hee Young Chun d , Hwa Shik Youn e , Emil Zi¸ eba f , Andrzej Kuczumow a,* a Department of Chemistry, Lublin Catholic University, 20-718 Lublin, Poland b LPS, CEN Saclay et LURE, Université Paris-Sud, Bat 209D, F-91405 Orsay, France c Department of Chemistry, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Kangwon-do 200-702, South Korea d Korean Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Taejon 305-350, South Korea e Pohang Accelerator Laboratory, Pohang 790-784, South Korea f Laboratory of Electron Microscopy, Lublin Catholic University (KUL), 20-718 Lublin, Poland Received 15 July 2002; received in revised form 4 April 2003; accepted 11 April 2003 Abstract Three representative samples of petrified wood were investigated: wood from King George Island, Antarctica; wood from Bio-Bio province, middle Chile and wood from Luków, Poland. Microdiffraction measurements of the Chilean and Luków wood were made at LURE. Chilean and Antarctic samples were permineralised by silica material, but the share of undefined calcium silicates in construction of some intracellular locations in the latter sample was significant. In contrast, the wood from Luków was replaced by calcite with a small presence of secondary silica. Linear scans were conducted using the X-ray microfluorescence beamlines in synchrotron devices in Orsay, France and Pohang, South Korea. The results were completed by the measurements of light elements with the use of electron microprobe. The list of major and minor constituents of all samples was established. The occurrence of such medium-Z elements as Fe, Zn, Cu and Ni was common in the samples. The samples of Chilean wood were more enriched in trace elements and minor amounts of As, La, Br and Cl were found in addition to the previously mentioned elements. Correlation of the trace element contents with the ring structure of the wood was detected. The annual ring, tissue and even cell details of the original wood were preserved by silica and calcite minerals and could be studied using the elemental mapping technique. Implications of the recent study for the material science are indicated. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Crystal growth; Grain boundaries; Scanning and transmission electron microscopy; X-ray diffraction; Synchrotron radiation 1. Introduction Fossilised wood is a common component in the geolog- ical record in many countries. Since this material contains plenty of information preserved, the deciphering of that information has attracted the attention of many research workers. Initially, they studied the materials which were able to penetrate the wood tissues to mineralise them. Sil- ica in different phases of crystallization [1–4] and calcite [5,6,8,9] are the basic species in the process of petrifac- tion of wood. Nevertheless, wood samples mineralised by goethite [7], pyrite [8,9], dolomite [10] and calcium phosphate [11,12] also occur. The material aspect of the * Corresponding author. E-mail address: kuczon@kul.lublin.pl (A. Kuczumow). petrifaction process is a fascinating question, since from the point of view of chemistry and material science, assem- bling the organic or biological material (cellulose, lignin) to mineral substance (silica, calcite, goethite) is hardly possi- ble [13–18], although it occurs relatively easy in nature. If the reproduction of the process in an artificial way were to be successful, it would open new ways in material science for the construction of very light, strong, compact and hy- drophobic materials, with all these parameters under strict control. On the other hand, the more traditional use of wood zonation in petrified material for the estimation of chronol- ogy [19], albeit controversial [20,21], is probably possible. In the same way, knowledge of past climatic conditions can be extracted from studies on petrified material. Chemical studies of petrified wood are not very advanced. Especially, the information about the spatial distribution of the chemical elements inside petrified material in connec- 0925-8388/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0925-8388(03)00570-X