Author
Listed:
- Maduka L. Weththimuni
(Department of Chemistry, University of Pavia, Via Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy)
- Alessandro Girella
(Department of Chemistry, University of Pavia, Via Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Centro Interdipartimentale di Studi e Ricerche per la Conservazione del Patrimonio Culturale (CISRiC), University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 1, 27100 Pavia, Italy)
- Matteo Ferretti
(Department of Chemistry, University of Pavia, Via Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy)
- Donatella Sacchi
(Department of Chemistry, University of Pavia, Via Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy)
- Maurizio Licchelli
(Department of Chemistry, University of Pavia, Via Taramelli 12, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Centro Interdipartimentale di Studi e Ricerche per la Conservazione del Patrimonio Culturale (CISRiC), University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 1, 27100 Pavia, Italy)
Abstract
Cleaning is one of the most important, essential, and delicate operation which has to be handled by conservators before applying new materials to any substrates. In past decades, nanotechnology introduced new concepts and materials in the conservation field, which have been providing many advantageous performances, especially higher than older materials. As a result, the conservators have already started to use nanomaterials in the cleaning processes of artifacts. Taking into consideration this new approach, our study has focused on using nano-structured emulsions (NSE) as smart cleaning materials for removing polymer coatings (e.g., acrylic polymers). For this purpose, Paraloid B-72 was applied on three different substrates (glass, Lecce stone, and Arenaria stone) and cleaning was performed by a specific nano-structured emulsion (NSE) based on an eco-friendly surfactant (EcoSurf) and two organic solvents in different proportions. In order to better understand the interaction of surfactant and organic solvents with polymer coating, plain EcoSurf in water was also used for comparison. In this study, the decay process of the considered polymer was also deeply studied, because it directly affects the cleaning effectiveness. Coated specimens of the different substrates were artificially aged and examined by different techniques: chromatic variations and contact angle measurements, optical microscopy, FTIR, and SEM-EDS. This material characterization process is important to understand the colour, morphology, and micro-structural difference, and the changes of hydrophobic behaviour as well as chemical composition of Paraloid B-72 polymer due to different ageing processes. After that, substrates coated with both unaged and aged polymer were cleaned by NSE according to the direct-contact procedure and cellulose pulp method. Preliminary analyses suggested that the direct-contact cleaning performed by nano-emulsion (i.e., NSE) induced a complete removal of the acrylic polymer, despite that this method is not recommended for the artifacts and can be hardly applicable in real cases. On the other hand, experimental results showed that satisfactory cleaning of stone substrates can be obtained by using NSE/the cellulose pulp system.
Suggested Citation
Maduka L. Weththimuni & Alessandro Girella & Matteo Ferretti & Donatella Sacchi & Maurizio Licchelli, 2023.
"Nanostructured Emulsions as Smart Cleaning Materials for Removing Aged Polymer Coatings from Stone Substrates,"
Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-17, May.
Handle:
RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:10:p:8117-:d:1148532
Download full text from publisher
Most related items
These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:10:p:8117-:d:1148532. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.