Hybrid coatings for the protection of cultural heritage materials

Abstract

Studies aiming to protect and conserve cultural heritage materials have been developed on the last decades and many techniques have been produced. Between the different types of material, the one less researched is wood, due to complexity of its structure, the variability between species, territories and the climate it was exposed, the existence of substances already applied to the surface when it was originally used, and the wood substrate itself with its irregularities. The variability created by those variables make it hard to reproduce the technique around the world and obtain similar results. The following novel target two different types of wood more used on the Greek territory since ancient times, chestnut and oak, using a commercial coating and nanolignin as an additive. The main goal was to understand the properties that can be enhanced with the use of the nanolignin on the composition. With the results obtained, it was possible to see a pattern where the additive coating shows better results than the one using the pure commercial coating, and oak kept showing better values than the chestnut. The increase on hydrophobicity existed on a certain degree, and adhesion, UV ageing protection and biocide properties were enhanced. The analysis made were able to complement and confirm the results, giving a good perspective on this research and showing possible next steps that can be made on future researche.