supercritical carbon dioxide: the art of technology in art conservation

Herein we present a survey of reported work covering specific applications of liquid and supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) in art conservation. CO2 has been tested and applied in a wide range of materials, as well as in various steps of a conservation / restoration operation, such as cleaning, protection and consolidation, and it has been demonstrated that CO2 has a great potential in replacing current conventional conservation processes. In this paper we will present some of the main results published in literature, concerning CO2 applications for the conservation and restoration of paper, wood, waterlogged, ethnographic materials, stone and textiles.