NATIONAL PHD IN HERITAGE SCIENCE

Research: Evaluation of the effect of atomic oxygen cleaning on oil painting

Cultural heritage objects constitute an invaluable and irreplaceable resource. It means that special attention is directed to the matter of conservation procedures and materials utilized, their effect on the artistic materials used in the objects of art. This research is being carried out as part of the European MOXY project, aiming at developing a novel non-contact cold plasma cleaning technique based on atomic oxygen (AO) for the cleaning of cultural heritage objects. My aim is to develop a methodological approach to investigating and quantifying the impact of AO on oil paint through the use of mass-spectrometry (SPME GC-MS/ EGA-MS, ESI-MS), thermo-analytical (TGA, DSC) and spectral (ATR-FTIR) techniques.