Memori technology developed to assist in conservation of materials with cultural and heritage significance

MEMORI aimed at providing the conservation market with innovative, non-destructive, and early warning technology for easy assessment of environmental impact on indoor cultural heritage was developed through a European-wide (EU FP7)  project in 2010-2013. The project was coordinated by NILU-Norwegian Institute for Air Research and included 14 partners, four subcontractors and an advisory end-user group with 8 members.

In the course of the project, partners at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, University of Pisa, Ghent University and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, investigated the damaging effects of organic acids, in particular acetic and formic acids, on different types of organic materials such as parchment, textiles, varnishes and pigments using advanced nondestructive analytical techniques. This provided an improved scientific basis for recommendations of tolerable pollution levels. A MEMORI dosimeter was developed by the Norwegian partner at NILU, which was sensitive to indoor climate and light, and to oxidizing and acidic air pollutants, which are commonly present in indoor locations. A prototype of a portable reader (the MEMORI dosimeter reader) for in-situ measurements and results’ evaluation was developed and work is ongoing to commercialise this instrument. 

Partners at the Fraunhofer Institute, Brauchschweig, Germany, English Heritage and  Tate London investigated the optimization of designs and regimes for control of enclosure environments for example display cases. They focused on the performance and applicability of pollutant adsorbents inside museum enclosures. Analyses of volatile organics inside the enclosures were performed both before and after installing adsorbers in the enclosures.

The role of DCU in the project involved working with Tate in London to develop a non-invasive optical oxygen sensor for monitoring oxygen levels in anoxic enclosures. It is thought that some works of art benefit from being stored/displayed in an oxygen-free environment where the DCU oxygen sensor would function as a real time monitor of the integrity of the enclosure by enabling remote scanning of the sensor using an optical reader. The sensor was developed in the Optical Sensors group of Prof. Colette McDonagh in the School of Physical Sciences and was based on the quenching of the luminescence lifetime of an oxygen-sensitive ruthenium complex which was encapsulated in a porous sol-gel glass thin film. The sensor system was tested at Tate and was found to outperform available commercial systems.

Throughout the project, much of the work was carried out in close cooperation with a very active end-user advisory group whose membership included key personnel from a number of high profile international art galleries and museums for example the Musée National Picasso Paris, France and the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, Japan.