Correlating natural ageing and Xenon irradiation of Paraloid B72 applied on stone

The ageing of Paraloid^® B72, an acrylic copolymer extensively used in conservation of works of art, has been investigated either under artificial irradiation (Xenon lamp) or in natural environment (external exposure) with the aim to correlate the results of the accelerate test with the real situation. For a better understanding of the involved mechanisms some acrylic homo-polymers were also subjected to the artificial ageing test. Molecular changes induced by ageing were followed by infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and size exclusion chromatography (SEC), while the efficiency of the treatment was checked by water capillary absorption test and colour determinations. The results obtained indicate that it is possible to discriminate, easily and within reasonable laboratory time experiment, between polymers that can be used in Conservation, and the macromolecules that should not be employed due to short efficacy life-times.