Anoxia and plastics

Ingrid Neuman <berkart [at] earthlink__net> writes

>I am curious if anyone has thought about, is looking into or
>currently experimenting with anoxic encapsulation of small
>contemporary art pieces composed of plastics (in Escal for instance
>with Ageless) in order to slow down the rate of deterioration of
>certain types of polymers? ...

I have investigated the effect of low oxygen microclimates on the
rate of degradation of rubbers and am currently evaluating the
properties and effectiveness of various barrier plastics.  Low
oxygen microclimates are highly effective at slowing the oxidation
rates of natural and synthetic rubbers and the findings of a real
time investigation over 15 years at the British Museum will be
presented at the ICOM-CC Triennial conference in Lisbon in
September, 2011 in the Ethnography working group. However, it is
vital to identify which plastics are present in artworks or objects
before enclosing. Cellulose nitrate (found as moulded plastics or
as spray paint) and acetate (found as moulded pieces or as
photographic film bases) should not be enclosed because they degrade
autocatalytically and will therefore degrade faster if their acidic
degradation products are allowed to remain in contact with the
plastics.

Yvonne Shashoua
Senior Researcher
Department of Conservation
National Museum of Denmark


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 25:4
                   Distributed: Monday, June 27, 2011
                        Message Id: cdl-25-4-002
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