Macchia Andrea, Strangis Romina, De Angelis Sara, Cersosimo Marica, Docci Antonella, Ricca Michela, Gabriele Bartolo, Mancuso Raffaella, La Russa Mauro Francesco
Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Science (DiBEST), University of Calabria, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy.
YOCOCU (YOuth in COnservation of CUltural Heritage), Largo dei Quintili 21, 00175 Rome, Italy.
Materials (Basel). 2022 Jun 4;15(11):4005. doi: 10.3390/ma15114005.
Biodeterioration is an increasingly widespread process of degradation in the context of the conservation of cultural heritage, which involves a combination of physical and chemical damages together with an aesthetic alteration of materials. For biological damage on monuments caused by pathogens, macro- and microorganisms, chemical treatments are generally used, most of the time dangerous for the environment and for the operator. In this context, new eco-friendly products represent necessary tools for the treatment of biologically deteriorated stone surfaces and represent a new challenge in the field of restoration and conservation of materials of cultural interest. A relatively new class of unconventional green solvents are deep eutectic solvents (DESs), which have peculiar chemical-physical characteristics such as being non-toxic, ecological, biodegradable, non-flammable, and stable in the presence of water. Furthermore, many DESs known in the literature have also been shown to have a biocidal action. All these characteristics make DESs very advantageous and safe, and they could be used as biocidal agents for the treatment of biodegraded surfaces of cultural heritage, being non-toxic for the environment and for the operator. So far, they are used in various fields, but they still represent a novel frontier in the cultural heritage sector. The present research aims at testing five different DESs for the first time in cultural heritage. In particular, DESs are applied to a mosaic located in the Ostia Antica Archaeological Park (Rome), and their efficiency is compared with a biocide product currently used in the restoration field, namely, Preventol RI50, through luminescence, bio-luminometry, and spectrocolorimetry analysis. The preliminary results achieved show the different behaviors of each DESs, highlighting the possibility of employing them in the field of cultural heritage. Further studies have been planned, some of which are already underway, to investigate the properties of DESs and indicate any improvements to make them more effective, both as solvents and as biocides, and easy to apply to various types of materials. The results obtained from this first study are very promising for the use of DES as a new green strategy for cleaning and conservation treatments of materials in the field of cultural heritage.
生物劣化是文化遗产保护背景下日益普遍的一种降解过程，它涉及物理和化学损伤的综合作用以及材料的美学改变。对于由病原体、宏观和微观生物对古迹造成的生物损害，通常采用化学处理方法，但大多数情况下这些方法对环境和操作人员都有危害。在此背景下，新型环保产品成为处理生物劣化石材表面的必要工具，也为文化遗产材料的修复和保护领域带来了新挑战。一类相对较新的非常规绿色溶剂是深共熔溶剂（DESs），它们具有特殊的物理化学特性，如无毒、生态友好、可生物降解、不易燃且在有水存在时稳定。此外，文献中已知的许多深共熔溶剂还具有杀菌作用。所有这些特性使深共熔溶剂非常具有优势且安全，它们可作为杀菌剂用于处理文化遗产的生物降解表面，对环境和操作人员无毒。到目前为止，它们已应用于各个领域，但在文化遗产领域仍代表着一个新的前沿方向。本研究旨在首次在文化遗产领域测试五种不同的深共熔溶剂。具体而言，将深共熔溶剂应用于位于奥斯蒂亚安提卡考古公园（罗马）的一幅马赛克上，并通过发光、生物发光测定法和分光色度法分析，将它们的效果与目前修复领域使用的一种杀菌剂产品Preventol RI50进行比较。取得的初步结果显示了每种深共熔溶剂的不同表现，突出了在文化遗产领域使用它们的可能性。已经计划了进一步的研究，其中一些已经在进行中，以研究深共熔溶剂的特性，并指出使其作为溶剂和杀菌剂更有效且易于应用于各种材料的改进方法。这项首次研究获得的结果对于将深共熔溶剂用作文化遗产领域材料清洁和保护处理的新绿色策略非常有前景。
