PlasmaArt Project – Application of Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma Jets in Conservation and Restoration of Wooden Artwork

Abstract

The PlasmaArt project was realized as a collaboration between the Institute of Physics and the Croatian Conservation Institute. The project was funded mainly by the Funds of the Adris Group, and to a lesser extent by project IP-11-2013-2753 of the Croatian Science Foundation. The main idea of the project was to test the application of cold atmospheric plasma jets on wooden test plates that simulate wooden artwork for the purpose of disinfection and removal of stratigraphic layers of overpaint. For ethical reasons, experimental research was carried out not on real artwork, but on wooden test plates which had been prepared to simulate wooden artefacts. (The samples were silver- plated and gold-plated plates, painted and varnished to faithfully represent real artwork.) To test the efficiency of the disinfection effect, some of the test plates were contaminated with fungal mycelia, and to test the removal of stratigraphic layers, the rest of the silver-plated and gold-plated test plates were covered with several layers of paint and varnish. The prepared test plates were treated with cold atmospheric-pressure plasma jets. The results showed that the stratigraphic layers could not be removed, and it was not possible to remove each layer separately. As a result of the disinfection procedure, positive effects were obtained in comparison to standard procedures used in conservation, while the efficiency depended on the type of plasma and the length of the treatment. It was found that the cold atmospheric-pressure plasma jet was an effective source for disinfection of wooden artwork in the conditions described in this paper