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An ab‐initio approach to cultural heritage: The case of ancient paper degradation
Author(s) -
Violante Claudia,
Teodonio Lorenzo,
Mosca Conte Adriano,
Pulci Olivia,
Kupchak Ihor,
Missori Mauro
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.201350403
Subject(s) - cultural heritage , degradation (telecommunications) , ab initio , chromophore , exploit , cellulose , component (thermodynamics) , computer science , materials science , chemistry , archaeology , organic chemistry , history , physics , telecommunications , computer security , thermodynamics
Paper is an important material for many applications. During the centuries, it has been the most widely used writing support and therefore paper degradation is a major issue for cultural heritage. The main component of paper is cellulose, one of the most abundant biomaterials on Earth. Cellulose oxidation is mainly responsible for the yellowing of the ancient samples, through the formation of chromophores. In order to investigate this issue and the chromophores’ role, we exploit the optical properties combining non‐destructive experiments and theoretical calculations based on ab‐initio techniques. In this paper, we illustrate the method and show its application to three ancient paper samples. The procedure we describe is a precious tool for cultural heritage preservation: indeed, the approach we present is based on non‐invasive and non‐destructive measurements that allows a microscopic understanding of cellulose‐based artifacts degradation.