Portal de Cartagena
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Researchers from the Polytechnic of Cartagena are going to reproduce by hybrid nanoparticles, with a mixed composition of calcium and magnesium, the impurities of the tabaire stone with which the ashlars of the Roman Theater are made to preserve these Roman remains with the greatest respect for their composition original.
The use of these nanoparticles is part of the project 'Nanoheritage: development, application and characterization of new consolidating coatings for heritage conservation', funded by the Seneca Foundation, which chose this initiative and another fifteen of the UPCT in its latest call for aid to scientific and technical research projects.
The AMBAR research group, led by Marcos Lanzón, will develop new stabilization techniques for ashlars and mural paintings at the Roman Theater and other sites in Cartagena.
In the case of paints, whose original substrate is lime, pure nanoparticles of calcium hydroxide Ca (OH) 2 will be applied.
"The objective is to recover and consolidate the splendor of these artistic remains, the best preserved in the Iberian Peninsula," says the researcher responsible.
Precisely this week, the Roman Theater of Cartagena hosts the international congress Roman painting in Hispania, in which this Friday will give a talk Marcos Lanzón explaining the techniques of analytical chemistry with which they are studying the techniques of Roman painting using fluorescence X-ray, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry and microscopy.
These researchers have previously applied chemical synthesis procedures to preserve the cultural heritage in the Roman Theater and in the restoration of a modernist building.
"The nanoparticles are previously dispersed in an alcohol that evaporates in just a few seconds without leaving any residue after being sprayed on the monument," explains Marcos Lanzón.
"The size of the nanoparticles is between 10,000-100,000 times lower than the pores of the stone, which ensures its good penetration at the surface level.
Subsequently, in contact with the environmental CO2, they are transformed into calcium carbonate, introducing a kind of natural cement very similar and compatible with soft sandstones such as Tabaire, used in Cartagena since Roman times, "says the researcher at the Higher Technical School of Architecture and Building (ETSAE) of the Polytechnic.
"The Romans, aware of the weaknesses of the sandstone extracted in Canteras, already covered the stone with lime stucco," he adds.
Source: UPCT
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