Abstract

The conservation of historically important stone buildings and monuments is a complicated field that crosses the boundaries of several different disciplines; in particular chemistry, geology, biology and materials science. It is a fact of nature that materials decay, and the role of the conservator is to delay this process for as long as possible. One way of approaching the problem is to place the object in a controlled environment. This is, however, clearly impossible in the case of large objects, and is expensive for smaller objects. The problem has become of increasing concern as decay mechanisms seem to have accelerated along with urban activity - primarily industrialisation and the burning of fossil fuels. This study focuses on a preliminary investigation of the acid/base nature of some building stones in order to determine their effect upon the polymerisation processes of an alkoxysilane system.

Keywords: chemistry, marble, sandstone, limestone

How to Cite:

Goins, E., (1994) “The Acid/Base Surface Characterization of Sandstone, Limestone and Marble and its Effect upon the Polymerisation of Tetraethoxysilane”, Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 5, 19-28. doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/pia.63