Innovative Materials and Tools for the Cleaning of Cultural Heritage

Dear Colleagues,

In the field of cultural heritage conservation, surface cleaning is one of the most critical and important operations. It not only creates a new appearance for artworks, it also allows for effective conservation, preventing further deterioration caused by deposits of extraneous substances or alterations of the surface itself. The variety of unwanted materials adds complexity to the cleaning process, ranging from common particulate matter, soot, and soluble salts to wax, aged varnishes, adhesives, protective coatings, and many others. An appropriate cleaning method requires selection and control, effectively removing unwanted materials while preserving the integrity of the original surface. Additionally, modern conservation practices demand eco-compatibility, economic sustainability, and non-toxicity.

Recent advancements have led to the development and testing of innovative materials and tools for cleaning artworks, such as green solvents, gels, nanostructured fluids, enzymes, chelants, laser technology, etc. These innovations aim to establish more effective, controllable, and feasible cleaning processes, with encouraging results showing the rapid progress in this area.

This Special Issue invites original research studies and review papers on innovative materials and tools for the cleaning of cultural heritage, providing insights into the development, validation, and testing of these new materials and methods.

Research areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Synthesis of innovative cleaning materials;
• Green approach and strategies;
• Analytical validation of new cleaning methods;
• Comparative studies of cleaning methodologies;
• Sustainable cleaning protocols;
• Innovative methods for monitoring the cleaning results;
• Case studies;

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Dr. Dominique Scalarone
Dr. Antonio Sansonetti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• green materials
• sustainability
• cleaning effectiveness
• cleaning monitoring
• non-contact cleaning
• laser
• gels
• emulsions