HYDROGELS OF PASSION FRUIT PECTIN AS A POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVE FOR PAPER CONSERVATION

Many advances in the area of Colloid and Material Sciences with a focus on Cultural Heritage has been achieved, in the past years, using nanostructured fluids, such as microemulsions and micellar dispersions. Gels that have a high water retention capacity are emerging as materials of great potential for cleaning objects1. Bio-based gel formulations, using natural polymers such as polysaccharides are bringing new perspectives to the cultural heritage conservation science since they are biodegradable, non toxic and obtained from renewable sources. Especially important, they are prepared by accessible methodologies and have been proved to be effective for the immobilization of damages2. In this work, hydrogels of agar agar (AGAG1) and passion fruit pectin (Pc) in different mass proportions were prepared. Citric acid (AC) was used as the crosslinking agent. The gels were applied in historical documents of wood paper, rag paper and japanese (washi) paper. The optimal mass proportion was AGAG1 2 wt%, Pc 2 wt % and AC 10% wt%. The results demonstrated the good mechanical properties, stability and performace of the hydrogel for the cleaning and the enhancing of historical papers, particularly wood paper.