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Protective cleaning of Chinese paper artworks with strong hydrogels: An interfacial adhesion perspective

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Abstract

Up to now, it is always a delicate and challenging task to clean and protect Xuan paper ink painting. Xuan paper is composed of cellulose with a rough surface and easy to absorb dust, which leads to poor cleaning effect and irreversible damage in traditional cleaning process. Hydrogel is one of the most effective tools to clean the artworks. However, in the practice of cleaning Xuan paper, most hydrogels cannot achieve fine cleaning result due to the interfacial adhesion issues. Herein, to protectively and effectively clean Xuan paper, using physical yet strong poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(N-(2-hydroxyethyl) acrylamide) (PVA/PHEAA) hydrogel with suitable stiffness as the model, the interfacial adhesion between hydrogel and Xuan paper was systematically investigated, and various technologies were used to evaluate the cleaning effect. A critical interfacial adhesive energy (< 4 J/m2) is found to achieve the protective and effective cleaning purpose. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to estimate the adhesion of hydrogel on the cleaning of paper artwork, which will provide a new viewport in the conservation practice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Packaging and Materials Engineering, Hunan University of Technology, Zhuzhou, 412007, China

    JingJing Du & ZhaoJun Nie

  2. Hunan Key Laboratory of Biomedical Nanomaterials and Devices, College of Life Sciences and Chemistry, Hunan University of Technology, Zhuzhou, 412007, China

    JianXiong Xu & LiJian Xu

  3. Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wenzhou, 352001, China

    Hui Yu & Qiang Chen

Authors
  1. JingJing Du
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  2. ZhaoJun Nie
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  3. Hui Yu
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  4. JianXiong Xu
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  5. LiJian Xu
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  6. Qiang Chen
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hui Yu, LiJian Xu or Qiang Chen.

Additional information

This work was supported by the Excellent Youth Fund Project of Henan Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 202300410166), the Major Project of Wenzhou Institute, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Nos. WIUCASQD2021004 and WIUCASQD2021035), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21504022 and 22202051).

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The supporting information is available online at https://tech.scichina.com and https://link.springer.com. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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Du, J., Nie, Z., Yu, H. et al. Protective cleaning of Chinese paper artworks with strong hydrogels: An interfacial adhesion perspective. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 66, 2681–2695 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-023-2425-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-023-2425-0

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