Analysis of the effectiveness of inhibitors of crystallization of soluble salts and consolidation of plaster in marine environment

Abstract

Salt crystallization is a serious problem for the conservation of porous materials, in particular for those materials already damaged by the exposure to rising damp and pollutants activity, or for materials in marine environment. The high crystallization pressure can be very harmful for the integrity of the porous material itself, leading to severe damages. Starting from this issue, this thesis studied the effectiveness of different salt crystallization inhibitors and the performance of some consolidants applied on materials without any preliminary treatments for the salts removal. The first part of the work studied the "in vitro" effects of NaCl- solution with different consolidant products and different inhibitors, in order to have a preliminary observation on the influence of the salt in the systems. The second part is focused on the direct application of consolidants and inhibitors on plaster samples treated with NaCl-saturated solution. The final aim of the thesis is to evaluate the applicability of consolidants on salted plaster and to check the final effectiveness of these products in such an environment.