Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy.
Barbara Ferriani S.r.l., 20122 Milano, Italy.
Molecules. 2020 Apr 8;25(7):1705. doi: 10.3390/molecules25071705.
The first synthetic polymers were introduced as constituents of everyday life, design objects, and artworks at the end of the 19th century. Since then, the history of design has been strictly connected with the 20th century evolution of plastic materials. Objects of design from the 20th century are today a precious part of the cultural heritage. They raise specific conservation issues due to the degradation processes affecting synthetic polymer-based plastics. Museums and collections dealing with the conservation of design objects and modern materials need to base their conservation strategies on compositional data that reveal the formulations of historical plastics and their decay processes. Specific and specifically optimized analytical tools are thus needed. We employed flash analytical pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) and evolved gas analysis coupled with mass spectrometry (EGA-MS) to characterize "historic polymeric materials" (HIPOMS) and heritage plastics at the molecular level with high chemical detail. This approach complements non-invasive spectroscopic diagnosis whenever it fails to obtain significant or complete information on the nature and the state of preservation of the materials under study. We determined the composition of several 20th century design objects (1954-1994) from the Triennale Design Museum of Milan (Triennale Milano - Museo del Design Italiano), which for different morphological, chemical, or physical reasons were unsuitable for characterization by non-invasive spectroscopy. EGA-MS proved capable for the study of the different fractions constituting heterogeneous micro-samples and for gaining an insight into their degradation processes from the contextual interpretation of thermal and mass-spectrometric data.
19 世纪末，第一批合成聚合物作为日常生活、设计对象和艺术品的组成部分被引入。从那时起，设计史就与 20 世纪塑料材料的发展严格联系在一起。20 世纪的设计对象如今是文化遗产的宝贵组成部分。由于影响合成聚合物塑料的降解过程，它们带来了特定的保护问题。处理设计对象和现代材料保护的博物馆和收藏需要基于揭示历史塑料配方及其降解过程的成分数据来制定保护策略。因此，需要特定且专门优化的分析工具。我们采用 flash 分析热解与气相色谱和质谱联用（Py-GC/MS）和气相色谱与质谱联用（EGA-MS），在分子水平上对“历史聚合材料”（HIPOMS）和文物塑料进行高化学细节的表征。这种方法补充了非侵入性光谱诊断，当它无法获得关于研究材料的性质和保存状态的重要或完整信息时。我们确定了米兰三年展设计博物馆（Triennale Milano - Museo del Design Italiano）中几件 20 世纪设计对象（1954-1994 年）的组成，这些对象由于形态、化学或物理原因不适合非侵入性光谱表征。EGA-MS 被证明能够研究构成非均匀微样本的不同馏分，并通过对热和质谱数据的上下文解释深入了解它们的降解过程。
