AIC's 47th Annual Meeting

Agar gel cleaning has been successfully applied on removing stains from porous surfaces, such as stone, plaster, paper and textile. It allows a constant and controlled release of water onto the porous substrate. However, there are few studies which apply agar gels to remove stains from ceramic objects and evaluate the cleaning effectiveness. This study attempted to evaluate the cleaning efficacy of agar gels on ceramic objects. Tile samples stained with dye, tea, and soot were cleaned with rigid agar gels with and without ethanol. The cleaning efficacy was evaluated based on comparing the surface morphology, colour variance and residue absence before and after cleaning. Multiple analytical techniques were applied, including optical microscopy, spectrometry, and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR).

The results showed that agar gels effectively remove stains from tile surface. Among the considered cleaning methods, 4% w/v agar gel with ethanol is more efficient than pure agar gel for removing dye stains based on the results of colour measurement. In cases of removing tea and soot, no difference was observed between the gel with and without ethanol. Moreover, the residue absence is determined by ultraviolet (UV) light examination and FTIR analysis. This study serves as a base for future studies for evaluating the cleaning efficacy on ceramic objects and the findings could enhance our understanding of the agar gel working properties on the high porous ceramic surfaces.