AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Conservation treatments often use materials that have a negative impact on the environment during their production, use, and disposal. In 2018, Sustainability in Conservation (SiC) produced an international survey that named solvents as one of the most used materials in conservation and the material most conservators would like to replace. Over the past several years, silicon-based solvents have been suggested as a more sustainable solvent for conservation treatments.

In this study, three silicon-based solvents were tested for use in paper conservation. Within paper conservation, pressure sensitive tape removal often utilizes excessive amounts of non-sustainable solvents. Decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), hexamethyldisiloxane, and octamethyltrisiloxane were utilized for the removal of a variety of artificially aged pressure sensitive tape samples. The silicone-based solvents were evaluated based on their sustainability, feasibility, and efficiency in the removal of the aged pressure sensitive tape.