The 16th century English warship, Mary Rose, sank off the south coast of England and remained under the seabed for 437 years until she was salvaged in 1982. The conservation of her waterlogged wooden artefacts is of enormous importance, as it gives us a unique insight into Tudor history. However, this is an immense challenge due to the nature of degradation of the wooden hull which is driven by biologically, chemically, and mechanically induced changes from long-term exposure to the marine environment. To lend structural stability to the hull, she has been sprayed with solutions of polyethylene glycol (PEG-200 and PEG-2000) for 30 years, before a drying phase commenced.1 Besides facing structural integrity issues, the deposition of iron and sulfur-based species within the Mary Rose timbers whilst under the seabed are generating harmful acids within the wood structure. These arise from dissolution of iron fixture aboard the ship and the activity of sulfur-reducing marine bacteria. X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) studies reveal the existence of a variety of sulfur- and iron-based species along the core wood and a high content of oxidized sulfur on wood surface.2 Having these insights are crucial to determining appropriate and targeted treatment strategies for the removal of these harmful chemicals. Our group is designing a range of tunable nanostructures based on functionalized magnetic nanoparticles as conservation platforms to target and remove these harmful iron and sulfur entities lodged inside the wood. The magnetic nature of the composite allows for removal via the application of an external magnetic field. These magnetic nanoparticles are also functionalized with thermoreversible PEG methacrylate polymer gels to allow easy application and removal from the Mary Rose wood. These nanocomposites have been tested as sequestering agents for iron in fresh and aged oak samples. I will present our latest results on these efforts, as well as an overview of the use of XANES for studying the Mary Rose. This is the first time such an approach has been taken to treat the Mary Rose wooden hull and its tunability means it could be employed to preserve a range of artefacts recovered from the Mary Rose site.

Magnetic nanocomposite materials for the archeological waterlogged wood conservation

256th National Meeting (2018)

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