Classifying Degraded Modern Polymeric Museum Artefacts by Their Smell

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Materials Science
• Conservation Science

Background:

• Modern polymers in museum collections present conservation challenges due to unstable formulations.
• Volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis is established in medical diagnostics but underutilized in museum conservation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the application of VOC analysis for diagnosing degradation in modern polymeric museum artifacts.
• To establish a reliable method for detecting and classifying polymer degradation over time.

Main Methods:

• Solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (SPME-GC/MS) was employed for sample analysis.
• Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used to classify samples based on degradation levels.
• Artificial degradation experiments were conducted to train and validate the analytical model.

Main Results:

• Classification accuracies of 50-83% were achieved after validation with separate test sets.
• The method successfully detected degradation evidence in three polymer artifacts from the Tate collections.
• The developed approach demonstrated potential for identifying polymer degradation in heritage materials.

Conclusions:

• VOC analysis is a viable technique for diagnosing degradation in modern polymeric museum objects.
• This method offers a non-destructive approach to assess the condition of polymer artifacts.
• The findings support the broader application of VOC analysis in heritage conservation and polymer degradation studies.