Nanocompósitos inovadores para a conservação e consolidação do património em pedras carbonatadas

Heritage built in carbonate stone (CS) with high cultural and economic importance all around the world is an important testimony of the past for present and future generations. Centuries of exposure led to a reduction of the internal cohesion of the stone and to a loss of artistic, historical, material and cultural value. Consolidation is thus necessary to restore the cohesion and the unique solution to avoid the complete loss of the stone elements, guaranteeing their preservation. Although the availability of commercial consolidants and their satisfactory results in some stones, such as alkoxysilanes in situations of granular disintegration in silicate stones, their performance in CS has not been equivalent. Thus, the conservation of CS has been an open challenge that claims research for designing novel and efficient strategies to guarantee the safeguarding of the heritage. The aim of NanoCStoneH project is to develop a new generation of products for the consolidation of CS varieties present in built heritage, applying an integrated and ambitious approach combining nanotechnology, composite materials and performance assessment. The integrative approach covering these fundamental aspects is innovative and will ensure a better performance of the new products in comparison to those available on the market. The new generation of nano products to consolidate CS to be developed by this project will be based in alkoxysilanes, ORMOSILs and inorganic and organic additives carefully chosen to face the constrains of “carbonate medium” and the well-known weaknesses of commercially available alkoxysilanes. The development of the innovative nano products will follow a methodology recently validated by the research team. The performance assessment of new treatments will consider their initial efficacy, risks of incompatibility and durability, both in laboratory and when applied to the preservation of stone elements from built heritage. The studies will comprise the use CS varieties with an important presence in the built heritage, as well as artificially degraded stones, in order to better simulate the real conditions of the treatment. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy will be used as an advanced tool to study the microstructure and transport mechanisms to determine the performance of the products. This project will be carried out by a team of recognized researchers from varied scientific fields, such as Construction, Materials, Chemistry and Geology, with proven experience in the built heritage conservation and in the development of pioneering products. The research team and the facilities made available guarantee a cross fertilization interdisciplinary approach to develop and assess the performance of new consolidation products, allowing to generate innovative knowledge and practices, far beyond the state of the art and the current practice of conservation with impact at a national and international level.