Abstract

In recent years, plasma technology has been successfully used in the conservation of cultural heritage. The removal of soot from historical bookbinding surfaces through a cold plasma cleaning technique is an important application. This study aims to test the efficiency of using atmospheric pressure cold plasma on cleaning and removing soot from historical leather bookbinding surfaces. Atmospheric pressure Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) cold plasma in an oxygen environment was applied to modern leather samples that were contaminated with carbon and artificially aged. The results have been evaluated using several techniques including visual assessment, digital microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) with (EDAX), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy with Attenuated Total Reflection (FTIR-ATR), mechanical properties, and colour change by UV spectrophotometer. The results have revealed that, the best removal of a soot stain through DBD cold plasma was found at 17.35W plasma power and 2 minutes exposure time.