Analysis of Poly(ethylene glycol) from the conservation of 17th century shipwreck Vasa and associated wooden objects

Abstract

Vasa, a Swedish warship that sunk in 1628 and was excavated in 1961, and associated wooden objects underwent a preservation process using various low molecular weights (600, 1500, and 4000 M_n) of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) to gradually displace the water within the wooden structure, preventing the collapse of the waterlogged wood upon drying. However, after six decades of aging after application, to what extent are these polymers degraded? To investigate this, a Soxhlet apparatus was used to extract PEG from wooden samples of Vasa, and lyophilization was used to dry aqueous PEG solutions, these samples being the runoff accumulated during the application of different molecular weights of PEG to Vasa and other associated wooden objects. These samples underwent analysis via matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization – time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and ¹H and ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.

The primary discovery was that the PEG within Vasa exhibited minimal degradation, with the dominant identified species, as determined by MALDI-TOF MS and NMR spectroscopy, being HO-PEG-OH. However, small quantities of HO-PEG-OH had undergone degradation, resulting in the formation of PEG chains with distinct end groups, notably a range of carbonyl-based compounds, including aldehydes, carboxylic acids, and esters, as observed through MALDI-TOF MS, ¹H, and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. These mass spectrometry product peaks could be confirmed by the expected mass difference through various end-group functionalizations, such as oxidations, esterifications, or ether formations. In addition to the carbonyl-based degradation products, some PEG chains had completely cleaved into two separate lower molecular weight HO-PEG-OH polymers, each approximately half of their original molecular weight, as revealed by GPC analysis.