Chemical Consolidation Of The Fragile Silk Heritage Study

Consolidation with polymeric materials is usually considered as a necessary method for fragile silk relics protection. The main purpose of this study is to compare polymeric materials used for fragile silk relics, to investigate the optimum condition of selected consolidant and to evaluate the application on silk relics.The fundamental information of the protein fibres such as general structure, degrading effects has been introduced, and the application of polymeric materials used in textile conservation has been reviewed briefly in this paper.In this study, eight kinds of polymeric materials, including Poraloid B72, Poraloid B48,acrylic glue 498 HV (Lascaux), acrylic glue 498 HV (Lascaux), Poly Vinyl Alcohol 124, gelatin, carboxymethylcellulose sodium, agar, are selected to compare breaking tenacity, breaking elongation, moisture rate, stiffness and discoloration before-and after-accelerated aging under humid and heat environment as well as under UV irradiation. The preliminary findings are shown that Paraloid B72 is suitable for fragile silk relics.The artificial aged silk was taken the place of the fragile silk relics. In this paper, the factors of concentration and soaking time were systematical studies by orthogonal experiments, and the optimum condition of consolidation was revealed that soaking in the 0.75% B72 solution for 20 min. would lead to the best result.The samples of Qing Dynasty had been treated by the optimum condition and had got better result, both the breaking tenacity and breaking elongation of the sample had been improved, and the silk remained soft.