CHEMICAL EVALUATION OF Araucaria columnaris CARBONIZED WOODS UNDER DIVERSE OXYGEN CONCENTRATIONS AS COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FOSSIL charcoal

In the face of environmental changes concerns, the study of climate change becomes essential to understand the life trajectory of planet earth. For this purpose, this work seeks to understand climate change and fluctuations in the amount of atmospheric oxygen across geological ages, carbonizing the Araucaria columnaris wood in varying oxygen concentrations, and comparing them to the fossil coal from Quiteria Outcrop. In this study, pyrolysis of Araucaria columnaris wood occurred with the use of TGA, under an atmosphere of 21% and 30% O₂, analyzed in FTIR, distinguishing the constituent compounds of the wood. Multivariate analysis of the mains components (PCA) was applied, for data crossing. There is a distinction between carbonized wood and fossil charcoal, the charcoal burning temperature as well as the atmospheric oxygen composition being inconclusive. However, FTIR results indicate that the amount of oxygen has an influence on the degradation of the wood, and samples at 450 °C have greater similarities with fresh wood. Thus, it was observed that the temperature and the burning time are the main factors of the fires, being that the amount of oxygen available in the atmosphere influences the firing process.

Keywords:
charcoal ; atmospheric oxygen; thermogravimetric analysis; charred wood