Rapid determination of cell morphology in eucalyptus wood by Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy

Analysis of cell morphology in native wood is a lengthy, multistep procedure, although it has a marked effect on product quality and the use of wood. The feasibility of using FT-Raman spectroscopy for rapid determination of cell length and cell wall ratio as cell morphology in native wood was examined with the use of wood meals of two Eucalyptus species, including samples of various ages and colors. The second-derivative transformation of Raman spectroscopic data and the partial least-squares regression revealed highly significant correlations between conventionally measured and Raman predicted values for cell length and cell wall ratio with correlation coefficient r > 0.9 and 0.8, respectively, in the calibration (for known samples, n = 55) and in the prediction (for unknown samples, n = 25).