Surface Characterisation of Parchments by Thermal Microscopy and Unilateral NMR

The protection of parchment collections in public and private libraries, archives, museums face nowadays several challenges such as environmental pollution, climate change, limited energy consumption, lack of testing/diagnosis protocols in conservation science as well as lack of standardisation of best practices in conservation. In this paper, the applications of thermal microscopy (imageMHT) and unilateral NMR to surface characterisation of parchments are presented. As parchment is a biomaterial with hierarchical structure characterised by the intimate relationship and connectivity between individual molecules and their organisation in micro-fibrils, fibrils and fibres, a micro to nano-scale investigation protocol is required for a reliable assessment.