Accelerated ageing of cotton canvas as a model for further consolidation practices

Abstract

In order to assess the effectiveness of various practices for canvas consolidation, model substrates areneeded. In this work, a method of rapid ageing of cotton canvas is described. The method consists oftreatment of the canvas with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and sulfuric acid at 40◦C during 72 hoursto mimic to some extent the natural processes of oxidation and acid-catalysed hydrolysis of cellulose.Two protocols for canvas degradation were developed, which reduced the degree of polymerization ofcellulose from ca. 6250 to ca. 1350 and 450. The reduction of the mechanical properties and the increaseof the negative charge were also quantified. These samples were compared with a canvas degraded usinga state-of-the-art method that takes up to 20 days. The results show that the developed method canprovide a rapid procedure for preparing small samples for testing various consolidation strategies byconservators.