Abstract
Abstract To analyse deposition of fine particulate matter (PM) on book surfaces we put twelve bunches of cellulose filters on a free shelf of the National Library in Prague, exposed them for three, six, nine, and twelve months to indoor air and analysed them after each period by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Ion Chromatography (IC). Results showed that fine particles were deposited predominantly on the surface of the top filter but partly also on the surfaces of inner filters. It indicates fine particles penetrated between filters. The penetration and deposition of particles was also modelled as Brownian diffusion between two parallel filters. The model prediction demonstrated that fine particles penetrate between filters, with the depth of penetration limited by parallel diffusional deposition on filter surfaces. This is in qualitative agreement with SEM and IC investigations. The results show that beside the top part fine PM can deposit onto all available surfaces of books.
Highlights
Airborne particles deposited on cultural heritage artefacts have many negative effects
The results showed that particle penetration and deposition depends on particle size and width of the gap, with the depth of the penetration limited by parallel diffusional deposition on filter surfaces
To test if the indoor submicron particles can penetrate by diffusion into gaps between books or even between pages of books, we exposed twelve bunches of Whatman filters to the indoor air fixed in open Petri dishes on a free shelf of the library
Summary
Airborne particles deposited on cultural heritage artefacts have many negative effects. In principle the submicron particles can penetrate by diffusion between books and even into the gaps between pages and can be deposited on the inner surfaces of books To test this hypothesis we examined deposition of particles on paper filters located on the free shelf of the library. To estimate penetration of particles between filters and subsequent deposition on inner surfaces we modelled transport of particles by Brownian diffusion between two parallel discs (Figure 3) put in environment with constant particle number concentration n0. Ion chromatography Results from the parallel study [17] showed that ammonium sulfate formed up to 60% of mass of water-soluble part of indoor submicron PM. The results clearly show, that submicron particles penetrated between filters with transport governed at least to the downward-facing surface (Figure 2) of the bottom filter by diffusion
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