Monitoring the accumulated water soluble airborne compounds deposited on surfaces of showcases and walls in museums, archives and historical buildings

TY - JOUR

T1 - Monitoring the accumulated water soluble airborne compounds deposited on surfaces of showcases and walls in museums, archives and historical buildings

AU - Skytte, Lilian

AU - Rasmussen, Kaare Lund

AU - Svensmark, Bo

AU - Ryhl-Svendsen, Morten

AU - Brimblecombe, Peter

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - Background: Cultural heritage objects are subject to the deposition of a multitude of airborne pollutants even when kept inside museums, archives, historical buildings or showcases. Some of the pollutants are quickly deposited onto any available surface, including the interior walls and CH objects themselves. This might make the compounds seem absent from analyses of indoor air samples. Context and purpose of the study: A new method of detecting water soluble pollutants without taking samples from the interior walls or from the CH objects themselves has been developed. The method involves sampling the pollutants accumulated on a surface near the CH object, e.g. a nearby wall or an interior glass surface of a showcase. The samples were obtained by gently flushing the surface with deionised water to collect the ions readily removed from the surface. The method was tested on a variety of surfaces. Results and main findings: The flushed water were analysed with IC (Ion Chromatography) and ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) and included ions of Al, As, Ba, Ca, CH3COOH, Cl, Co, (COOH)2, Cr, Cu, F, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, NH4, Ni, Pb, S, Sb, Si, Sn, Sr, Ti and Zn, and the ions NO3 -, PO4 3-, and SO4 2-. The resulting concentrations were converted to μEq, providing the ionic balance and the relative amounts of the ions and elements present. Ionic balance was observed on smooth and inert surfaces, but in some cases the chemistry of the wall contributed to the flush water. Solid samples of some of the surfaces have been analysed by XRF to clarify these more complex situations. Conclusions: Clear results appear from smooth or well defined surfaces, whereas more complex situations arise when the underlying surface itself contributes to the flush water. The method is working very well and is easy and cheap to implement by curators and conservators, who can the send the flush water to specialized laboratories. Brief summary: A new methodology capable of monitoring the accumulated airborne deposits on surfaces in showcases and historic buildings is presented and tested. The method is cheap and is easy to implement by curators and conservators and allows the assessment of threats to the CH objects which are not always observed by analyses of the indoor air.

AB - Background: Cultural heritage objects are subject to the deposition of a multitude of airborne pollutants even when kept inside museums, archives, historical buildings or showcases. Some of the pollutants are quickly deposited onto any available surface, including the interior walls and CH objects themselves. This might make the compounds seem absent from analyses of indoor air samples. Context and purpose of the study: A new method of detecting water soluble pollutants without taking samples from the interior walls or from the CH objects themselves has been developed. The method involves sampling the pollutants accumulated on a surface near the CH object, e.g. a nearby wall or an interior glass surface of a showcase. The samples were obtained by gently flushing the surface with deionised water to collect the ions readily removed from the surface. The method was tested on a variety of surfaces. Results and main findings: The flushed water were analysed with IC (Ion Chromatography) and ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) and included ions of Al, As, Ba, Ca, CH3COOH, Cl, Co, (COOH)2, Cr, Cu, F, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, NH4, Ni, Pb, S, Sb, Si, Sn, Sr, Ti and Zn, and the ions NO3 -, PO4 3-, and SO4 2-. The resulting concentrations were converted to μEq, providing the ionic balance and the relative amounts of the ions and elements present. Ionic balance was observed on smooth and inert surfaces, but in some cases the chemistry of the wall contributed to the flush water. Solid samples of some of the surfaces have been analysed by XRF to clarify these more complex situations. Conclusions: Clear results appear from smooth or well defined surfaces, whereas more complex situations arise when the underlying surface itself contributes to the flush water. The method is working very well and is easy and cheap to implement by curators and conservators, who can the send the flush water to specialized laboratories. Brief summary: A new methodology capable of monitoring the accumulated airborne deposits on surfaces in showcases and historic buildings is presented and tested. The method is cheap and is easy to implement by curators and conservators and allows the assessment of threats to the CH objects which are not always observed by analyses of the indoor air.

KW - Cultural heritage interiors

KW - Danish churches

KW - Indoor air pollution

KW - Interior walls

KW - Water soluble deposits

U2 - 10.1186/s40494-016-0115-0

DO - 10.1186/s40494-016-0115-0

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85008496065

SN - 2050-7445

VL - 5

JO - Heritage Science

JF - Heritage Science

IS - 1

ER -