Consolidation of very degraded cultural heritage wood artefacts using radiation curing of polyester resins

The importance of preserving heritage objects for future generations is extremely high and thus improved methodologies for wood based heritage artefacts conservation-restoration are continuously explored and developed. Gamma irradiation is an option for disinfection and consolidation of wooden artefacts due to its total biocide spectrum, low cost, reduced treatment time, absence of chemical residues and of toxicological hazard, etc. The aim of this paper was to test the performances of a new styrene free resin for wood impregnation by comparing the thermal, photochemical and chemical stability of various wooden artefacts experimental models pre and post treatment. Very degraded wood consolidation using a new polyester acrylate (PA) styrene free resin and a polyester (P) resin dissolved in styrene was performed by gamma curing. The color and dimensions of the consolidated wooden experimental models did not change significantly. The mass of the wooden samples was doubled when using the PA resin and tripled when using the P resin. Consolidation induced changes in the wood experimental models regarding their thermal, chemical and photochemical stability. This preliminary study indicates better performance of the PA resin towards the P resin in terms of consolidation and physical chemical stability.