From Wet to Preserved: Collecting Data of Waterlogged Wood Treated with PEG in Lanyan Museum and Study the Effect of Molecular Weight on Dimensional Stability

IRG/WP 25-11080

K-L Huang, P-Y Kuo

Waterlogged archaeological wood are most commonly unearthed in Yilan County, with over one-third originating from the Yilan Agricultural School site. This study aims to analyse the current state of conservation of waterlogged archaeological wood in Yilan County and hopes to properly alleviate the irreversible damage caused to the waterlogged archaeological wood after they leave the water layer. However, there is still a lack of interdisciplinary discussion on current conservation methods. For example, the commonly used polyethylene glycol (PEG) treatment has rarely been studied for the solidification of low molecular weights. Therefore, this experiment organises the submerged artefact data provided by the Bureau of Cultural Heritage from the Qiwulan area, selects relics of similar size as test materials, and uses a Laser Raman Scattering Spectrometer to evaluate the degree of decay. The pretreatment uses 2% ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and 10% sodium hydroxide. For freeze-drying treatment, the wood is first immersed in liquid nitrogen, submerged over its surface, placed in a -80 °C refrigerator, and then placed in a freeze-dryer. The submerged wooden artefacts are placed in 30% polyethylene glycol 400, 800, 1200 Da; high molecular weight 2000, 4000 Da dissolved in water and 2% chitosan dissolved in 0.1M acetic acid to explore the influence of dimensional stability and injection homogeneity, and evaluate the feasibility of improving dimensional stability. It is expected to solve the deterioration of waterlogged archaeological wood due to shrinkage and swelling, obtain low dimensional change, low leakage rate, homogeneous injection, and evaluate the degree of wood degradation. The research aims to integrate interdisciplinary research gaps through literature analysis in order to obtain the preservation conditions for solidification of waterlogged archaeological wood using natural polymers.


Keywords: waterlogged archaeological wood, polyethylene glycol (PEG), chitosan, antishrinkage efficiency (ASE), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), laser Raman scattering spectrometer

Conference: 25-06-22/26 Yokohama, Japan


Download document (265 kb)
free for the members of IRG. Available if purchased.

Purchase this document