Issue 41, 2019

Preventing fungal growth on heritage paper with antifungal and cellulase inhibiting magnesium oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

Microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, algae and moulds are highly proficient at colonizing artistic and architectural heritage. The irreparable damage they cause to unique artefacts results in immeasurable cultural and societal losses to our shared cultural heritage, which represent an important social and economic resource for Europe. With the overall aim of preventing fungal deterioration of paper artefacts, we report the use of magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgO NPs) of average diameter 12 nm as potent antifungal agents against fungi commonly found colonising paper heritage: A. niger, C. cladosporioides and T. reesei. Dispersions of MgO NPs on original 18th century paper samples from the Archives of the Spanish Royal Botanic Garden were effective at preventing fungal colonisation without altering the appearance of the paper artefacts. Importantly, MgO NPs also inhibit cellulase activity in the filamentous fungi T. resei and A. niger, two of the principle biodeteriogens of cellulosic materials. In addition, our report provides three simple new procedures for studying the fungal colonisation prevention properties of nanomaterials on paper samples. Overall this opens the door to the use of colourless, low-cost, and scalable nanomaterials for preventing biodeterioration in cellulose-based artefacts.

Graphical abstract: Preventing fungal growth on heritage paper with antifungal and cellulase inhibiting magnesium oxide nanoparticles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 মে 2019
Accepted
20 জুন 2019
First published
20 জুন 2019

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2019,7, 6412-6419

Preventing fungal growth on heritage paper with antifungal and cellulase inhibiting magnesium oxide nanoparticles

I. Franco Castillo, E. García Guillén, J. M. de la Fuente, F. Silva and S. G. Mitchell, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2019, 7, 6412 DOI: 10.1039/C9TB00992B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements