| Title | Tiny Magnets Will Escort Ions Out of Rare Material From a Shipwreck | |
| Date | Sunday August 26 2018, @09:56PM | |
| Author | mrpg | |
| Topic | ||
| from the I'll-see-myself-out dept. | ||
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
[...] For conservation, each particle is bound to molecules of porphyrin, which will in turn bind to free iron ions in the wood, catching them before they can react to form damaging acid. That whole package is coated in a polymer that responds to changes in temperature; at around 22⁰C, the composite is a thick gel. With a slight dip in temperature, the polymer becomes a liquid, which soaks into the wood and carries the nanoparticles with it. Conservators can use magnetic fields to steer the composite to the right area of the wood and then draw it out again with the captured iron ions in tow. And when the whole process is done, they can heat the composite to a gel and peel it off the surface of the wood.
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printed from SoylentNews, Tiny Magnets Will Escort Ions Out of Rare Material From a Shipwreck on 2023-07-07 00:35:31