Camphor wood, a potentially harmful museum storage material: an analytical study using instrumental methods

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 28; no. 34; pp. 46458 - 46468
• Main Author: Shen, Jingyi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.09.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Camphor; Copper; Corrosion; Corrosion mechanisms; Corrosion products; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Gas chromatography; Insects; Ions; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Museums; Organic compounds; Scientific imaging; Secondary ion mass spectrometry; Selected Case Studies on the Environment of the Mediterranean and Surrounding Regions; Smell; Spectroscopy; Terpenes; VOCs; Volatile organic compounds; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; X-ray diffraction; X-ray spectroscopy; Volatile organic compounds; Metallic corrosion; Indoor air pollution; Camphor wood; Museum storage material; Instrumental analysis
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-020-09446-0

Camphor wood is welcomed by museums due to its insect-repelling effect but the smell indicates a potential risk to the collections. In order to judge the suitability of camphor wood as a museum storage material, typical camphor wood ( Cinnamomum camphora ) samples aged for different years were evaluated by conducting the Oddy test. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and time of flight–secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) were applied to identifying the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by the materials and the corrosion products, respectively. The results showed that the camphor wood samples led to visible corrosion on copper and lead coupons. GC-MS indicated that the major VOCs emitted were terpenes and their derivatives, while XRD, EDS, and ToF-SIMS provided various clues to the corrosion mechanisms. Pb 10 (CO 3 ) 6 (OH) 6 O and CuO were regarded as the major corrosion products of lead and copper coupons, respectively. The study provides the museum curators and the conservators with abundant information to reassess the application of camphor wood to museums as well as a different way to understand the mechanism of metallic corrosion caused by camphor wood.