Evaluation of Montmorillonite (MMT)/polymer Nanocomposite in Gap Filling of Archaeological Bones

Abdel-maksoud, Gomaa; Sobh, Rokaya Aly; Tarek, Ahmed; Radwan, Samaha

doi:10.21608/ejchem.2019.15761.2051

Evaluation of Montmorillonite (MMT)/polymer Nanocomposite in Gap Filling of Archaeological Bones

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Conservation Department, Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt

² National Research Centre, polymers and pigments department

³ Conservation Centre, Grand Egyptian Museum, Ministry of Antiquities, Egypt

⁴ Textile Metrology Department, National Institute for Standards, Tersa Street, Giza, Egypt

10.21608/ejchem.2019.15761.2051

Abstract

Archaeological bones are exposed to various deterioration factors, so polymers are used to im-prove their properties and give more durability. Traditional pastes were applied and evaluated be-fore. This study aims to evaluate some modified pastes in order to improve the properties of tradi-tional pastes. Montmorillonite MMT was modified with amino acid and characterized in terms of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray Diffraction XRD and scanning electron microscope SEM. Nanocomposites of modified MMT with paraloid as acrylic polymer were eva-luated using XRD to be used for gap filling and completion of archeological bones to give more re-sistance against surrounding environmental conditions.
Accelerated ageing were used for evaluation of modified pastes and estimated through change of color by UV spectrophotometer, FTIR, mechanical properties (tensile, elongation and compressive strength) and surface morphology by SEM.
The results confirmed that the modified pastes with modified mMMT nanocomposite showed good resistance against thermal ageing, and give high stability in terms of color change value, sur-face morphology and mechanical properties. As pastes with the mMMT gave negligible color dif-ference as 0.98. In addition, the contact angles measurements reduced with smaller ratios as 12% and 7.5% than their corresponding pastes with no mMMT 22% and 11%, respectively. Moreover, pastes with mMMT showed higher density, lower porosity and lower water absorption and exhibit more resistance against thermal ageing.

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