In this work, ultra-small europium-doped HfO2 nanoparticles were infiltrated into native wood and used as trackers for studying penetrability and diffusion pathways in the hierarchical wood structure. The high electron density, laser induced luminescence, and crystallinity of these particles allowed for a complementary detection of the particles in the cellular tissue. Confocal Raman microscopy and high-resolution synchrotron scanning wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) measurements were used to detect the infiltrated particles in the native wood cell walls. This approach allows for simultaneously obtaining chemical information of the probed biological tissue and the spatial distribution of the integrated particles. The in-depth information about particle distribution in the complex wood structure can be used for revealing transport pathways in plant tissues, but also for gaining better understanding of modification treatments of plant scaffolds aiming at novel functionalized materials.
Keywords: Raman microscopic imaging; X-ray diffraction; hafnia; nanophosphors; transport pathways; wood tissue.