Structural and Mechanical Properties of “Peelable” Organoaqueous Dispersions with Partially Hydrolyzed Poly(vinyl acetate)-Borate Networks: Applications to Cleaning Painted Surfaces

The preparation and structural characterization of a family of viscoelastic dispersions of borate cross-linked, 80% hydrolyzed poly(vinyl acetate) (80PVAc) in aqueous–organic liquids are presented. Correlations between mechanical properties (from rheological measurements) and the degree and nature of cross-linking (from ¹¹B NMR spectroscopy) are reported, and the results are used to assess their potential as low-impact cleaning agents for the surfaces of paintings. Because the dispersions can be prepared at room temperature by simple procedures from readily available materials and can contain up to 50% (w/w) of an organic liquid, they offer important advantages over previously described cleaning agents that are based on fully hydrolyzed PVAc (i.e., poly(vinyl alcohol). The mechanical properties of the various aqueous–organic dispersions, as determined quantitatively by rheological investigations and qualitatively by their ease of removal from a solid surface (i.e., the so-called “peel-off” ability) have been tuned systematically by varying the amount of organic liquid, its structure, and the concentrations of borax and 80PVAc. The ¹¹B NMR studies demonstrate that the concentration of borate ions actively participating in cross-linking increases significantly with the amount of organic liquid in the mixture. The degree of cross-linking remains constant when the 80PVAc and borax concentrations are varied, as long as their ratios are kept constant. Some of the 80PVAc–borax dispersions have been tested successfully as cleaning agents on the surface of a 16th–17th century oil-on-wood painting by Lodovico Cardi, “Il Cigoli”, that was covered by a brown patina and on the surface of a Renaissance wall painting by Vecchietta in Santa Maria della Scala, Siena, Italy, that had a degraded polyacrylate coating from a previous conservation treatment