Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NEMOSINE (Innovative packaging solutions for storage and conservation of 20th century cultural heritage of artefacts based on cellulose derivate)

Teaser

A huge percentage of the recent European cultural heritage (CH) can be found in movies, photographs, posters and slides produced between 1895 to nowadays were made using cellulose derivatives. More than 75 years of visual and audio memories are up to now in serious danger to...

Summary

A huge percentage of the recent European cultural heritage (CH) can be found in movies, photographs, posters and slides produced between 1895 to nowadays were made using cellulose derivatives. More than 75 years of visual and audio memories are up to now in serious danger to be lost due to the natural instability cellulose acetate (CA) and cellulose nitrate (CN) materials produced by the “vinegar syndrome”.
NEMOSINE aims to improve the traditional storage solutions, such as freeze storage (below 5ºC), by developing an innovative smart package with the main goal of energy saving and extent conservation time of cultural objects based on cellulose derivatives. Beyond the state of the art NEMOSINE plans to develop the following modular and integrated products:
- High water barrier and Active packaging using non-odour additives.
- Active acid (AA) adsorbers based on functionalized Metal Organic Framework (MOFs) integrated in low density and porous structures.
- Gas detection sensors based on nanotechnology to monitoring AA, water, O2 & NO.
- Multi-scale modelling to correlate degradation & sensors signals for maintenance prediction and integrate all these technologies in the conservation system.
- Packaging with modular design to fulfil the technical & economical requirements of the different CH made by cellulose derivatives and vi) Curative packages containing controlled release of natural antifungal additives.
The main targets of NEMOSINE project are cellulose derivatives, from photographic, movies and audio substrates.

Work performed

All the work done till now, and presented in this periodic report shows strong links between some of the developed WPs:
- WP1 “Definition of requirements of each audiovisual CH artefact” has been used as a feeding tool to know exactly which are the actual needs of museums and archives related to conservation and storage of the films and photos, and also to know ”on the ground” which are the day-to-day procedures and ways of working of the archivists and technicians.
The information collected from this work and the conclusions obtained has been very useful to tune the initial objectives in order to approach the final results of NEMOSINE to the real needs of the end-users, always trying to reach different technical solutions.
- WP2 and WP3 are the WPs that shows more amount of work done according the planned workplan due to the fact that are these WPs will ensure to advance on the State of the Art of preservation and curative systems to be implemented in the future NEMOSINE solution.
- WP4 and WP5 are advancing in close collaboration due to the mutual interdependence between them. WP4 is advancing in terms of sensoring definition, correlation of measurements done by sensors compared to traditional methods, minimizing sizes to help on the integration and help on feeding data for modelling tasks. WP5 is working with the partners involved in WP4, and in close contact with SSH partners to define the best communications systems according aspects as; facilities characteristics, needs of information (amount of signal or data necessary for surveillance and monitoring of stored films), how to present them, etc.
- WP6, focused on the development and final manufacturing of the NEMOSINE concept, is working on the final definition of the main characteristics of the box. This WP has evolved from the original idea of potential needs related the preservation of the films adjusting them in order to be adapted to the real needs and real situation of the archives. It means that different solutions and possible associated business models or exploitation concepts could be generated from the NEMOSINE project associated to the developments that are being done.
- WP7, related Environmental, regulatory and economic analysis, is accomplishing its objectives till now based on the fact that main part of the information related to the NEMOSINE development and progress is still not the final one. The main used data sources are based on literature and technical data provided by the technical partners based on the initial tests and experiments.

Final results

Beyond the state of the art, NEMOSINE project aims:
- to develop a new line of AA adsorbers based on MOFs technology that will go beyond the state of the art limitation outlined above will be available to the conservation experts.
- will explore other alternatives such as (i) the synthesis of MOFs directly inside the macroporous structure of the foam polymer, achieved by adding the reactants and solvent medium in a reactor where the foam in already present or (ii) to convert the MOF in a first step to macroscopic particles (granulated of pellet forms) and then add the particles into a foam reacting formulation, to obtain a one-shot foam with supported particles evenly distributed.
- to develop new active package by encapsulating odour-free antifungals peptides and other antifungals to be integrated in high surface area devices (open cells foams and/or electrospinning nanofiber) to maximize the action. The encapsulation will allow an accurate control of the substance release kinetics.
- from the analysis of the recent achievements on room temperature detection of NO and acetic acid (AA), new research lines based on photocurrent-based sensors will be developed.
- to develop multi-scale models to correlate sensors’ signals integrated in the package with degradation level of any type of cellulose derivatives CH artefacts. The correlation between sensor signals and degradation stage will be mainly achieved using multi-scale chemometric tools.
The expected impacts can be summarized as follows:
- Practical & affordable materials/ technique solutions in terms of cost and/or complexity of operation by those who will use them. A major objective of the project is to make the system easy to use in a very conventional way, i.e. without requiring high handling and using technical specifications.
- Increased quantified efficiency of materials/ technique development for CH conservation, also beyond the specific cases selected by the proposers. That means to develop several innovations that can be useful for the conservation of a wide range of CH based on cellulose derivative, beyond of the current technique that are based on freezing and reparation after damage. It will be useful for preserving any archival document in libraries or archives and could be used either by institutions (museums, cinematheque, etc.) or private users.
- Improved modelling based decision making regarding conservation interventions. Sensors integrated in the package will provide the required information by the NEMOSINE developed mathematical model, which will estimate the long-term optimal predictive maintenance plan for each monitored CH artefact. The real time data from RFID will feed the predictive models to be used in the decision support platform for the conservers and make a significant step in the knowledge management regarding CH maintenance.
- Clear prospect for quantified socioeconomic gains from the proposed solutions. The proposed solution is economically driven and optimized for efficient preservation and long-term conservation of fragile and precious material for future generations. This means better financial investments to protect expensive artefacts, and the photographs and films that contain a significant part of our common memories and cultural legacy for the future.

Website & more info

More info: https://nemosineproject.eu/.