Development and application of new methods for the conservation of ceramics

It is highly important not to damage an object of study when preserving or restoring ceramic historical cultural heritage finds and buildings. In other words, the conservation procedure must preserve an object for the future rather than cause even more damage. As a result, the search for and development of new, advanced materials and technologies for the conservation of cultural goods are among the most significant and relevant goals of our times. When performing the conservation of ceramics, it is important not only to select such conservation substances that would ensure the unchanged appearance and chemical composition of a cultural object, but also to protect it effectively against the harmful impact of external environment. The aim of this dissertation was to develop effective conservation technologies for ceramic materials. Another objective was to carry out the research on the ion migration and apply it for the evaluation of the suitability of the conservation substances employed in this dissertation while protecting the ceramics from the harmful impact of external environment. Five polymer substances were tested on contemporary and historical ceramics. The distribution of the polymer substances on the ceramic surface was evaluated with the help of modern surface morphology investigations. Also, it was tested whether the used conservation substances formed a hydrophobic layer on the ceramic surface. A highly sensitive inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was employed to determine the quantity of the ions migrated from the ceramics to aqueous solutions of different pH values. The duration of the exposition to the solutions of both conservated and non-conservated ceramics varied from several hours to one day. The characteristics of the five polymer coatings were evaluated when preventing the ion elution from the ceramics to different pH value aqueous solutions. Potassium methylsiliconate demonstrated the best protective characteristics and was tested additionally with the samples of Lithuanian ceramics prepared according to the 14th-16th century structural ceramics manufacturing technologies