Influence of Public Museum Conditions on Polymer Degradation and Color Change of Historical Dyed Wool Textiles

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

Huge number of historical valuable textiles was created during civilization process. These kinds of textiles preserve and reflect the history and culture of people throughout the ages. However, some damage occurs during the storage and display of historical textiles in museums due to exposure to different environmental conditions. Hence, in this study mechanics of polymer degradation and color change of historical wool textiles by temperature in museums were investigated. To this end, wool fabrics were dyed with natural dyes, namely Madder and Safflower, to resemble the historical textiles in museums. Then, the dyed textiles have been subjected to thermal accelerated aging for variable time exposure. The mechanical, chemical, optical properties in terms of surface morphology and color parameters (CIELab)) and air permeability were evaluated. The aim of this study is to present an easier approach for evaluation of the effect of temperature variation on historical textile display in the Egyptian museum.

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