Speakers
Description
Epoxy resin and polyvinyl acetate adhesives are widely used in treating the cracks and fractures for stones antiquities. In this study, details the development, mechanical evaluation, and application methodology of high-performance epoxy resin and (PVAc) adhesives reinforced with inorganic fillers, specifically engineered for archaeological stone restoration. Epoxy resin was reinforced with silica nanoparticles (SiO2, ~50 nm) and iron powder (~50 μm) at weight fractions of 2 wt%, 5 wt%, and 20 wt%. PVAc was reinforced with nano-SiO2 at weight fractions of 2 wt%, 5 wt%, and 15 wt%. An acrylic copolymer (Paraloid B-72) was applied as an isolation coating layer on the stone surface before the application of adhesives. This intervening barrier serves to effectively safeguard the original substrate by ensuring that the adhesive does not come into direct contact with the artifact. Consequently, when removal of the adhesive becomes necessary in the future, this reversible coating facilitates the detachment process without causing any physical or chemical damage to the underlying archaeological stone. The epoxy composite with 5 wt% nano-SiO2 exhibited the highest shear strength of 46.94 MPa, while the PVAc /5 wt% nano-SiO2 composite achieved 35.90 MPa. Conversely, shear testing on aluminum substrates showed that the iron powder-reinforced epoxy outperformed the nano-silica formulation, reaching a maximum shear strength of 5.35 MPa compared to 3.94 MPa. (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used to characterize the prepared adhesives. Finally, the validation of this adhesive system on stone samples—verified via (XRF) spectroscopy to be compositionally identical to Iraqi antiquities
