The consolidation of waterlogged wooden artifacts involves physical, chemical,
and biomaterial methods. Physical methods diminish or eliminate surface tension by altering or circumventing the gas-liquid interface. In addition, shrinkage and deformation are
caused by internal stress resulting from liquid evaporation in the wood. However, physical methods can only dehydrate wooden artifacts without consolidation and they cannot be
used with severely degraded or large wooden artifacts. Chemical methods introduce consolidants to achieve both dehydration and reinforcement by filling wood cell lumens or
interacting with cell walls. However, controlling the penetration of consolidants is diffi-
cult, and the penetration time can last for several years. In addition, consolidants can
degrade over time, which may damage wooden artifacts. Given the high compatibility
between biomaterials and wooden artifacts, a greater number of biomaterials have been
used recently to consolidate waterlogged wooden artifacts. Yet, factors such as molecular
weight, particle size, and solution viscosity of biomass materials hinder their penetration
into waterlogged wood artifacts. This area of research remains mostly unexplored, where
the current research has focused on new consolidants, with limited studies on the impact
of the media used to carry these consolidants on wood. Future studies should attempt to
investigate the influence of the media on protective effects, and to estimate the effects of
conservation using material chemistry characterization methods.
XU Qingmeng1, 2, 3 , HUANG Xiao2 , LUO Hongjie2, 3 , ZHU Jinmeng4
. Research progress on the consolidation and protection
of waterlogged wooden artifacts[J]. Journal of Shanghai University, 2024
, 30(6)
: 1006
-1017
.
DOI: 10.12066/j.issn.1007-2861.2598