10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
Atmospheric Particulate Matter: A Threat to the Health of Raffaello
PAOLA FERMO, Valeria Comite, Silvana De Iuliis, Carlo Giglioni, Stefania Gilardoni, Davide Gulotta, Francesca Migliorini, Lucia Toniolo, University of Milan, Italy
Abstract Number: 1589 Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
Abstract Indoor air quality in historical buildings and museums is receiving increasing concern nowadays among the scientific community. Many sources of pollutants, both gases and particles, are responsible for the accelerated dacay of the works of art. Knowing the levels of indoor pollutants is of critical importance to apply conservation and preservation strategies of cultural heritage.
Air quality at the Ambrosiana Art Gallery in Milan has been monitored (in the period October-November 2017) inside the room where the preparatory cardboard of the School of Athens (1509-1511), one of most important works by Raffaello Sanzio, is stored. This cardboard represents one of the most important works of art present in Milan.
The cardboard is currently undergoing restoration and will be placed in a new case that must be realized taking into account the environmental and microclimatic conditions of the room. The objective of this study was to monitor the concentration and chemical composition of the aerosol particulate matter, up to the nano fraction, which represents the most dangerous for the works surfaces.
The instrumentation used includes: - a PTS sampler (total suspended powders) (Tecora, Pollution Check, Bravo M2) - a DustMonit (Contec) analyzer that measures the concentration of dust up to PM1 and provides 13 granulometric classes (up to 300 nm) - a NanoScan, Nanoparticle sizer 3910 (TSI) instrument that measures particles concentration up to 10 nm - a SIILIS instrument (Sphere-integrated LII Spectrocopy) that measures, through the laser glow, the particles of black carbon - a micro aethalometer (AE51 Magee Scientific) for the determination of back carbon.
Some tools have been dedicated to the determination of black carbon which is the main responsible for the blackening of the surfaces.
PM monitoring has been carried out in two museum rooms: the room with the masterpiece form Raffaello and another room visited by a great number of people. The results obtained have shown that outdoor environment can significantly affect indoor air quality. The presence of people can result in increased concentrations of indoor pollutants. From the data acquired by the DustMonit instrument it has been evidenced that PM2.5/PM10 ratio is in most cases very close to 1 indicating a predominance of the fine fraction.
Quartz fiber filters were employed to collect PTS samples. The filters have been fully chemically characterized: main ionic constituents and the carbonaceous fraction (i.e organic carbon, OC and elemental carbon, EC) have been analyzed by IC (ion chromatography) and TOT (thermal optical transmittance) respectively. It is worth noting that the contribution of EC to PTS mass is not negligible. The values obtained are in a fairly good agreement with black carbon (BC) concentrations measured by SIILIS instrument. Furthermore comparing BC values with particles distribution determined by Nano Scan, it is quite evident that BC is mainly present within the fraction with diameter lower than 200 nm which represents a serious threat for the works of art stored in the gallery.