Piero Baglioni

6 ECTS: 32 hours of lectures and 24 hours of laboratory training

Aims : This course will focus on the basic principles of chemical sciences that underlie modern chemical and material technologies for the understanding of degradation and the design of conservative materials for works of art; building on this basic knowledge, the students will apply such principles to solve some selected issues related to conservation science, which can be promptly translated to a broad range of challenges in academic and non-academic fields.

Lectures (4 ECTS)

•      What is a work of art from a chemical-physical point of view; Degradation and conservation of works of art; Principles of surface chemistry, self-assembly and soft matter related to cultural artifacts and materials for conservation.

•      Detergency.

•      Advanced systems for conservation; Cleaning systems: Micelles, microemulsion and more complex fluids;

•      Confining cleaning systems in macromolecular scaffolds: Gels; Gel Definition and Gel Classes (physical and chemical gels); Hydrogels and Organogels; Hybrid Gels Gels Advanced Architectures (SIPN, IPN, DS, SCL)  General Properties of Polymer Networks; Background on Entropic Elasticity; Elasticity of Physical Gels; Glass transition; Network Swelling; Swelling and Biodegradation; Transport phenomena in gels; Thermally Induced Phase Separation (TIPS) with Solvent Crystallization: Cryogels; Spinodal Decomposition in Ternary Systems: Polymer/Solvent/Non-Solvent; Spinodal Decomposition in Organic – Inorganic Composite Scaffolds; Supercritical Processing.

•      Selected Examples of Gels as Scaffolds: pHEMA and PVA based hydrogels Castor oil Organogels

•      Confining a complex system (micelle, microemulsion, etc.) into a gel to boost activity and fine control of the confined system. Case studies: cleaning of Leonardo da Vinci, Pollock, Picasso, De Chirico, etc.

Laboratory practice (2 ECTS)