Microstructural changes in artificially and naturally aged salt-treated silk fibers

Common in the XIX and XX centuries treatment of silk fabrics with inorganic salts (weighting) is believed to be the reason of rapid degradation of historical objects in museum collections worldwide. Although, the scale of the problem is emerging, knowledge of the chemical paths of these processes is still limited. In frames of SafeSilk project devoted to deepen the knowledge of degradation mechanisms, we propose to employ SR-XRD imaging to track changes in the crystal microstructure of silk fibers treated using various weighting methods, subsequently artificially aged, and compare them with the conservation state of the historical ones. The obtained insights will help to evaluate the influence of different internal (weighting methods) and external (aging) parameters on the degradation of silk fibers.