Treating leather with PEG vapors

In Conservation DistList Instance: 16:58 Thursday, April 3, 2003,
Annick Vuissoz asks whether it is possible to impregnate a fragile
leather object with the vapours of PEG dissolved in a water/ethanol
mixture.  Nicole Gilroy makes the same suggestion in Instance 16:60.

I have to say that I think this is extremely unlikely to work.  Even
the lowest molecular weight PEGs have very low vapour pressures at
room temperature (high boiling points), so the amount of PEG in the
vapour phase will be very small.  I suspect that if any effect is
seen with this treatment, it will be due to the relaxing effect of
the water/ethanol vapours.

Sorry not to be more optimistic!

Dr Barry Knight
Senior Conservation Scientist
English Heritage
English Heritage
+44 20 7973 3000
Fax: +44 20 7973 3001


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:63
                 Distributed: Wednesday, April 23, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-16-63-001
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