Abstract: The 50% PEG400 aqueous and a hybrid solution of PEG400 (50%) and ε-caprolactone(ε-CL) (50%) were separately used to investigate the dehydration and reinforcement of waterlogged scotch pine wood simulating the archaeological waterlogged wood. The dehydration process included catalyst pre-treatment, impregnation under room temperature and 50℃ hot dry aggregate. And the weight and dimensional changes of the different stages were analyzed, which was applied to evaluated the effects of process on the dimensional stability, weight gain percentage and reversibility of wood. And then the treated wood was characterized by FT-IR, TGA-DTA and SEM. The results showed that the PEG400 and the hybrid solution of PEG400 and ε-CL both had good dehydration and reinforcement effect on waterlogged scotch pine wood with good reversibility. The weight gain percentage of the wood samples treated by the hybrid solution of PEG400 and ε-CL increased obviously and the value of was 124.1%. After the dehydration and reinforcement, the shrinkages of tangential direction, radial direction and volume were 0.01%、0 and 0.01%,respectively, indicating of the dimensional stability. The ring opening polymerization (ROP) of CL was carried out inside the wood structures to form polycaprolactone(PCL). The wood cell walls were coated and filled by PCL and PEG400, resulting in the increased thickness of the cell wall. However, the thermostability of wood filled with PLC and PEG400 was turned to decrease. PLC would firstly degrade at 150℃ to protect the cell wall of wood.

Key words: PEG400, epsilon-caprolactone(ε-CL), ring opening polymerization(ROP), poly(ε-carprolactone) (PCL), dehydration and reinforcement