Un nuovo supportante per la pulitura degli affreschi: il carbogel

Sciientific and practical tests have been carried out during the cleaning process of porous supports, in order to determine the efficiency of a new material utilised as supportante. The material is called Carbogel and is a modified polyacrylic acid-based substance as well as polymer of huge dimensions with the property of being able to form stable gels with water-based solutions. The use of such gels is advantageous; no penetration into porous supports, a simple preparatory phase, high water retention. The number of cleanings carried out which tolerated various solutions with modified polyacrylic acid resulted, as far as efficiency is concerned, as being comparable to the cleaning carried out with traditional supportanti. Tests utilising infra-red spectrometry FTIR instrumentation verified that the cleaning had removed all traces of the supportante. The tests have given positive results on model supports as well as in situ.