FTIR ANALYSIS FOR THE EVALUATION OF SOME TRIAZOLE FUNGICIDES FOR THE TREATMENT OF WOODEN ARTIFACTS.

The Growth of fungi on wooden artifacts is accompanied as a rule by various physic-chemical processes making wood rigid, brittle and deformed. Therefore it is necessary to evaluate some fungicides for the preservation of wooden artifacts in order to eliminate any deformation caused by microorganisms. This study represents an attempt to use some triazole fungicides with different concentrations (propiconazole and tebuconazole) in order to assess the chemical stability of wood damaged by fungi. Fungal ageing over different periods of time was applied by using three species of fungi (Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium chrysogenum), which were collected from different historical buildings in Egypt (such as The Mosque of Sabiile and Koutab Suleiman Agha Selehdar dated back to 1837-1839 AD, The Mosque of El Mouayed Sheikh Al-Mahmoudi dated back to 1415 to 1421 AD etc.), and were identified in previous work. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to evaluate the fungicides used. The results revealed that it is unfavorable to use propiconazole in the treatment of wood infested by Aspergillus flavus. However, tebuconazole can be used safely to treat wood infested by this fungus. The results also proved that increasing propiconazole and tebuconazole concentrations was needed to achieve acceptable protection against Aspergillus niger. In case of Penicillium chrysogenum, it is noticed from the results that the increased in propiconazole and tebuconazole concentrations is not recommended for treatment and a low concentration (0.25 %) is sufficient to inhibit the fungal effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]