Abstract
The area-specific emission rates of formic acid and acetic acid from heritage objects made of wood and paper were quantified for normal indoor room conditions (23 °C, 50% RH) as well as for cooler (10 °C) and drier (20% RH) conditions. At normal indoor conditions, the emission rate of formic acid and acetic acid together were in the range of 10 to 300 µg m−2 h−1. The emission rate decreased by a factor of 2–4 from wood and paper when lowering the temperature from 23 to 10 °C. The emission rate decreased by more than a factor of 2 when reducing the relative humidity (RH) from 50% to 20%. This corresponds well with field measurements in real storage rooms containing heritage collections. In addition, 36 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were identified to be released by four paper samples. All the VOCs detected can in general originate from several sources. Therefore, these substances cannot be used as unique degradation markers for paper but rather as an indication of emission sources present in the indoor environment.
Highlights
The main part of heritage collections is in storage
Quantification of formic acid and acetic acid emissions under indoor room conditions The area-specific emission rates of formic acid and acetic acid from sample no. 1–7 are shown in Fig. 1
The areaspecific emission rates from the three wood samples ranged from archaeological wood with an emission rate of 145 μg m−2 h−1 up to newly produced softwood packaging with an emission rate of 303 μg m−2 h−1 at 23 °C and 50% relative humidity (RH)
Summary
Beside the emissions from building interiors and people’s activities, the collections themselves can be a source of air pollution. Acetic acid and to some extent formic acid can accelerate alkali leaching and cause efflorescence on limestone and ceramics [8,9,10,11,12] and corrosion on copper alloys, cadmium, zinc, magnesium and in particular lead [12,13,14]. Formic acid is known to accelerate the formation of crystalline corrosion products on historic glass surfaces [15]. Robinet et al [15] measured a concentration of 614 μg m−3 acetic acid and 220 μg m−3 formic acid in Smedemark et al Herit Sci (2020) 8:58 indoor air in a room previously used to store glass objects showing signs of deterioration
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