Preserving historic documents and archives from corrosion
Most historic documents, archives and paintings are subject to damage due to the corrosive properties of their iron gall ink, such as works of Victor Hugo, or Leonardo da Vinci's masterpieces. Answering this need the INKCOR project developed a non-aqueous conservation method that allows treatment of bound volumes and water sensitive items. Having evaluated the stabilising potential of certain non-aqueous deacidification solutions on a model iron gall ink paper interesting results were derived. It was found that dissolution of magnesium titanium in an organic solvent may lead to a more uniform alkali distribution throughout the paper than magnesium oxide would. For this reason processes using magnesium titanium ethoxide are preferable to those involving magnesium oxide as they were proven to have better effects. The novel conservation treatments that include various instrumental techniques such as size exclusion chromatography, viscometry and spectroscopy for stabilisation of paper's oxidative decay were assessed. The evaluated prototype treatments have the potential to be further developed into commercial products for non-aqueous stabilisation of ink corrosion. These products may offer development of an improved and effective preservation strategy for corroded documents and can significantly contribute to the conservation strategies of cultural heritage.
