A new and simple optical sensor for the detection of formic acid unleashed by wooden storage or display materials used in museums and responsible for accelerating glass deterioration

Abstract

Organic pollutants such as formic acid , acetic acid and formaldehyde released by some materials (mainly wood) used for storage and display can play an important role on the alteration of the glass structure due to the alkali leaching process. It as been determined that formic acid when present inside storage or display cabinets is the one that affects most glass integrity , accelerating and deepening the alkali leaching from the silica matrix. As this situation can affect many museums on their glass collections , monitoring this compound would be of great importance for indoor preservation purposes. An optical sensor based on the layer-­‐by-­‐layer (LbL) electrostatic self-­‐assembly process is under development to identify indoor formic acid based on the immobilization of chemo-­‐responsive dyes in polymeric structures. The sensors are based on an optical response resulting from the reaction between immobilized dyes and the referred organic pollutant .