The reproduction of fire-born soot for comparative cleaning tests on heritage objects

Year: 2025

Authors: Yang N., Cremonesi M., Markevicius T., Del Favo A., Shumikhin K., Ducoli E., Pires CR., Fontana R., van der Voort P., Leus K., Nuyts G., Pastorelli G., Jensen SW., Bonaduce I., van den Berg KJ., Morent R., Nikiforov A., van der Snickt G.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Antwerp, Fac Design Sci, ARCHES Res Grp, Mutsaardstr 31, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium; Univ Ghent, Res Unit Plasma Technol RUPT, Dept Appl Phys, Fac Engn & Architecture, Sint Pietersnieuwstr 41 B4, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium; Univ Antwerp, NANOLab, Antwerp X Ray Imaging & Spect Lab AXIS Res Grp, Ctr Excellence, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium; Univ Amsterdam, Fac Humanities, Dept Conservat & Restorat, Turfdraagsterpad 15, NL-1012 XT Amsterdam, Netherlands; Natl Res Council Natl Inst Opt CNR INO, Largo E Fermi 6, I-50125 Florence, Italy; Univ Pisa, Dept Chem & Ind Chem, Via Moruzzi 13, I-56124 Pisa, Italy; Univ Ghent, Ctr Ordered Mat Organomet & Catalysis COMOC, Dept Chem, Krijgslaan 281 S3, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium; Natl Gallery Denmark, Solvgade 48-50, DK-1307 Copenhagen K, Denmark.

Abstract: This work describes the design of reproducible mock-ups with controlled soot deposition, created to support comparative cleaning tests within the EU Horizon MOXY project. The latter develops atmospheric, plasma-generated, monoatomic oxygen as a cleaning method to remove (amongst others) fire-born soot from heritage objects. A literature review highlights the complexity of soot while revealing a lack of focus on the representativeness of artificial soot in previous studies. We benchmarked two approaches: (I) indirect/cold application of pre-fabricated soot and (II) direct/hot application via ongoing combustion. The results demonstrate that direct combustion yields soot with markedly different physical and chemical characteristics. Chemical analysis (Raman, XRPD, TGA, EGA-MS, XPS) and microscopic imaging (3D optical, SEM) revealed differences in composition, morphology, and deposition behaviour on substrates like paper, silk, paint and plaster. We selected the ’smoke drum’ method as the most practical and reproducible approach for mimicking fire-born soot in heritage cleaning research.

Journal/Review: NPJ HERITAGE SCIENCE

Volume: 13 (1)      Pages from: 593-1  to: 593-20

More Information: This research was performed within the framework of the FWO research project ’Plasmart’ (grant G0C2822N) and the EU Horizon (Topic ID: HORIZON-CL2-2021-HERITAGE-01-01, Green technologies and materials for cultural heritage) MOXY project (grant nr. 101061336). The authors wish to express their gratitude to who gave kind support and advices but was not included as co-authors, including Ludmila Ma & scaron;kova, Teresa T. Duncan, Karin von Lerber, Nora Brockmann, Tine Froysaker, Jo Wynendaele, and Kremer company for sharing their knowledge on soot application. And special thanks to Bruce Banks and Sharon K. Rutledge (NASA) for the original design and our technician Joris Peelman (UGent) for building up the sooting device.
KeyWords: X-ray-diffraction; Cultural-heritage; Particulate Matter; Surface-chemistry; Crystallite Size; Air-pollution; Black Carbon; Conservation; Deposition; Particles
DOI: 10.1038/s40494-025-02067-1