Graphene as effective anti-fading agent for the protection of artworks

Abstract

Since all art materials in time are prone to degradation due to environmental conditions, a solution is needed to delay or even to prevent such an interference. Graphene, the pioneer of 2D materials, seems to pave the way to this end either as a protective layer on artworks or as an inclusion in paints, dyes, pigments acting as protective additive, respectively. Regarding the former, the proposed invention provides a method for applying a protective graphene coating onto a surface, such a two- or three-dimensional artwork or other coloured surface. The steps followed within this method are: Deposition of Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) produced graphene onto a supporting substrate in order to produce a graphene/substrate composite; Removal the graphene membrane from the supporting substrate; and Deposition the graphene membrane onto the surface of interest All the pre-mentioned steps are performed following the roll-to-roll method (Choi et al., 2015), with the assistance of a tailor-made laminator. However, the direct deposition of graphene onto artworks may not be straightforward due to the wet transfer and hot lamination conditions that can be catastrophic for fragile painted substrates. The novel strategy designed exploits the high-quality CVD monolayer graphene and uses a pressure-sensitive adhesive film (PSAF) in the transfer process that has been demonstrated to enable graphene wetting on the final target-substrate (Kim et al., 2015), thus maximizing the contact area and van der Waals interactions. The low work of adhesion between graphene and the PSAF, compared to the corresponding between graphene and the destination surface, promotes the transfer that can be performed at mild pressure and temperature conditions, without using a surface modifier or adhesives (Martins et al. 2013). Additionally, the proposed roll-to-roll method does not affect the mechanical integrity of the typical paper substrates used in graphic arts. As for the protective additive case, graphene is employed in the form of an aqueous dispersion in media such as paints, dyes, inks, pigments and/or varnishes used for artistic purposes in order to create indelible colours to capable to prevent degradation, attributed to UV radiation, moisture and oxidizing agents. The method presents a new approach for obtaining aqueous dispersions for the hydrophobic graphene and thus, protecting artworks and painted indoor/outdoor wall surfaces taking advantage of the optical and barrier properties of graphene.