Application of low-temperature plasma for the conservation of cultural heritage: A brief review

As the representative traces left by human beings in social activities, many cultural heritage objects are considered to have important historical, artistic, and scientific values. However, they usually suffer from various aspects of deterioration such as corrosion, stains derived from different sources (soot, dust, microorganisms, etc.), weakness, color change, etc. The most important goal for conservators is to prolong the existence of artifacts far beyond their natural lifespan, on the premise that minimal changes have been made to the originality of the objects or artworks. In this review, the authors focus on the application of low-temperature plasma for the conservation of cultural heritage objects. At the beginning of this review, the principle and features of different low-temperature plasma setups are presented. Then, the review can be divided into several groups based on the treatment type, including plasma chemical reduction of metallic artifacts, protective coatings (polymer coatings, diamond-like Carbon (DLC) coatings, and SiO2 protective layers), the mechanism and effect of microorganism inactivation, plasma deacidification of paper relics, enhancement of physical/chemical properties, and cleaning of painting. (c) 2023 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Cultural heritage objects, as representative traces left by human beings in social activities, are considered to have important historical, artistic, and scientific values, but they often suffer from deterioration. The main goal for conservators is to prolong the existence of artifacts while preserving their originality as much as possible.