Identifying VOCs in exhibition cases and efflorescence on museum objects exhibited at Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian-New York

Abstract

Two mass spectrometry (MS) methods, solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography (SPME–GC–MS) and direct analysis in real time (DART-MS), have been explored to investigate widespread efflorescence observed on exhibited objects at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York (NMAI-NY). Both methods show great potential, in terms of speed of analysis and level of information, for identifying the organic component of the efflorescence as 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidinol (TMP-ol) emitted by the structural adhesive (Terostat MS 937) used for exhibit case construction. The utility of DART-MS was proven by detecting the presence of TMP-ol in construction materials in a fraction of the time and effort required for SPME–GC–MS analysis. In parallel, an unobtrusive SPME sampling strategy was used to detect volatile organic compounds (VOCs) accumulated in the exhibition cases. This sampling technique can be performed by collections and conservation staff at the museum and shipped to an off-site laboratory for analysis. This broadens the accessibility of MS techniques to museums without access to instrumentation or in-house analysis capabilities.

Indoor Air Quality in Museum Display Cases: Volatile Emissions, Materials Contributions, Impacts

“…The potential of SPME as a portable and easy-to-operate sampling technique in museums is demonstrated in a study for identifying VOCs responsible of efflorescence on objects within exhibition cases [74]. The proposed SPME sampling protocol is appealing to conservators, allowing them to receive and expose the SPME fibers in the display case without the intervention of a scientist.…”

Monitoring pollutant gases in museum microclimates: a relevant preventive conservation strategy

“…Este caso mostra precisamente a necessidade de encontrar alternativas mais sensíveis e de maior amplitude para a deteção de gases libertados pelos materiais de construção introduzidos nas galerias. Outros museus relataram o mesmo problema de aparecimento de cristais brancos sobre artefactos enclausurados nas vitrinas, incluindo esculturas em bronze, madeira e objetos de cera, pinturas a óleo e a têmpera [56][57][58][59]. O produto responsável pela emissão do composto 2,2,6,6-tetrametil-4-piperidinolo (TMPol) foi o adesivo Terostat-9220 utilizado em grandes quantidades para unir o vidro às estruturas metálicas das vitrinas [58].…”

Machine Learning Approaches to Identify Discriminative Signatures of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from Bacteria and Fungi Using SPME-DART-MS

“…In this work, solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) and direct analysis in real time (DART) ambient plasma ionization MS were used to collect VOC sample data from microbial cultures followed by automatic feature extraction and learning techniques for VOC profiling. VOC fingerprints have been shown for fungi with DART alone [ 34 ] and SPME-DART has been previously reported for the analysis of VOC in samples such as grapes [ 35 ] and museum pieces [ 36 ]. This study involves using SPME to collect VOCs accumulated in the gas space above the agar slant in a sealed tube, known as the headspace.…”