• Liu, Ran
  University of Maine, Graduate School
  

The interactions of transition metals and organic compounds have important effects on the wood decay process. It has been proposed that low molecular weight compounds produced by brown rot fungi play an important role in the early stages of wood degradation. These compounds have the ability to complex and reduce transition metals such as iron in the wood and catalyze Fenton reactions, which degrade holocellulose. Cu is studied in this work because it also complexes with the model chelators isolated from fungi and it could be used in voltammetry studies more readily than iron.