Nanostructured Emulsions as Smart Cleaning Materials for Removing Aged Polymer Coatings from Stone Substrates

Maduka L. Weththimuni (), Alessandro Girella, Matteo Ferretti, Donatella Sacchi and Maurizio Licchelli
Additional contact information
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
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

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-17

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.

Keywords: polymer coatings; eco-friendly surfactant; nano-emulsions; cleaning process; SEM-EDS; micro FTIR-mapping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/10/8117/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/10/8117/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:10:p:8117-:d:1148532

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().