INNOVATIVE METHODS OF ANALYSIS AND DIAGNOSIS OF NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC POLYMERIC MATERIALS

Abstract

The study of natural and synthetic polymeric materials from modern and contemporary textile artworks can give scientists some difficulties in identification of the fibers or other components. Sometimes, time or environmental conditions can damage quite enough textile articles and because of that more and more techniques have been developed in order to assess the need to a better analysis of the samples. In addition to the lack of analytical equipment that can sometimes appear, a big problem is also the interpretation of the results. The main advantage of modern and contemporary textiles is that these products are easier to analyze because the time and environmental conditions at which they were exposed to do not have yet a major impact on them. In this paper are presented several types of analyzes and equipment that have non-destructive or micro-destructive properties. Some of these techniques have been used for decades, while others have been developed recently. Besides Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), one of the most used equipment in cultural heritage field are further summarized: Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART), Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS), Raman spectroscopy, Gas and Liquid Chromatography (GC and LC). These techniques are used for ancient textiles and also for the modern and contemporary ones.

Keywords

• textile
• artworks
• non-destructive techniques
• contemporary period
• modern period