This poster, titled “Cleaning Treatments for Silver with Precipitated Calcium Carbonate”, is presented by Han Zhou, PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam, at the ICOM-CC Metal Working Group 2025 interim meeting METAL2025. The study recognizes a lack of systematic evaluation of the short- (after cleaning) and long-term (after re-tarnishing) effects of cleaning treatments with precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) on silver objects. The poster shows findings from a preliminary testing in collaboration with metals conservators from the Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands, including results characterized with confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray system (EDS). These results indicate that both original surface finish and cleaning treatment with PCC lead to different chemical pathways in the re-tarnishing process of treated objects. Further research in this direction is on-going.
Zhou et al. (Mon,) studied this question.