X-ray tomography as an estimation technique for wood consolidation by frontal polymerization

Polymers are often utilized in the restoration of damaged materials: their application to the restoration of wooden objects of artistic interest is of particular importance. However, their penetration is often limited by both their viscosity (even if in solution) and by their macromolecular size which can be larger than the matrix pores. Furthermore, the estimation of their penetration has been so far based only on weight measurements, thus the mapping of the restoring material inside the sample is not known. In this work, we have applied the frontal polymerization to the consolidation of wood samples and the Computer-Assisted Tomographic (CAT) technique in order to check the gradient of penetration of the monomer inside the sample.