Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Apr 29;13(9):2064.
doi: 10.3390/ma13092064.

Nanomaterials Used in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage: An Up-to-Date Overview

Madalina Elena David  1   2 , Rodica-Mariana Ion  1   2 , Ramona Marina Grigorescu  1 , Lorena Iancu  1   2 , Elena Ramona Andrei  1
Affiliations
Review

Nanomaterials Used in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage: An Up-to-Date Overview

Madalina Elena David et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

In the last few years, the preservation of cultural heritage has become an important issue globally, due to the fact that artifacts and monuments are continually threatened by degradation. It is thus very important to find adequate consolidators that are capable of saving and maintaining the natural aspect of these objects. This study aims to provide an updated survey of the main nanomaterials used for the conservation and restoration of cultural heritage. In the last few years, besides the classic nanomaterials used in this field, such as metal nanoparticles (copper and silver) and metal oxides (zinc and aluminum), hydroxyapatite and carbonated derivatives, tubular nanomaterials (such as carbon nanotubes) have been used as a potential consolidate material of cultural heritage. Tubular nanomaterials have attracted attention for use in different fields due to their structures, as well as their ability to present multiple walls. These nanotubes have the necessary properties in preserving cultural heritage, such as superior mechanical and elastic strength (even higher than steel), high hydrophobicity (with a contact angle up to 140°), optical properties (high photodegradation protection), large specific surface area (from 50 to 1315 m2/g, depending on the number of walls) for absorption of other nanomaterials and relatively good biocompatibility.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes; carbonated hydroxyapatite; cultural heritage; hydroxyapatites; metal nanoparticles; nanomaterials.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Graph of scientific papers published per year in the period 2000–2020 regarding nanoparticles used to consolidate different artifacts. From Scopus (https://www.scopus.com).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Nanomaterials used as consolidates in conservation and restoration of cultural heritage.
Figure 3
Figure 3
SEM images of the treated wood: (a) old wood, (b) old wood treated with HAp, (c) old wood treated with Au, (d) old wood treated with Au and Hap. Reused from an open access source [1].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Graphene and carbon nanotubes as structures: (A) single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and (B) multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ion R.-M., Nyokong T., Nwahara N. Wood preservation with gold hydroxyapatite system. Herit. Sci. 2018;6:37. doi: 10.1186/s40494-018-0202-5. - DOI
    1. Ion R.-M., Grigorescu R.-M., Iancu L. New Uses of Micro and Nanomaterials. IntechOpen; London, UK: 2018. Polymeric Micro-and Nanosystems for Wood Artifacts Preservation; p. 73.
    1. Dumitriu I., Ion R.-M., Fierascu R. Arheometria Materialelor Suport. Transversal; Târgovişte, Romania: 2011.
    1. Ion R.-M., Doncea S.M., Ion M.-L. Surface investigations of old book paper treated with hydroxyapatite nanoparticles. Appl. Surf. Sci. 2013;285:27–32. doi: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2013.07.159. - DOI
    1. Mourdikoudis S., Pallares R.M., Thanh N.T. Characterization techniques for nanoparticles: Comparison and complementarity upon studying nanoparticle properties. Nanoscale. 2018;10:12871–12934. doi: 10.1039/C8NR02278J. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources