Plasma treatment of gelatin photography
Blanka Zachariášová *, Katarína Haberová, Michal Oravec, Viera Jančovičová
Department of Graphic Arts Technology and Applied Photochemistry, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Radlinského 9, 812 37 Bratislava, Slovakia
E-mail: * blanka.zachariasova@gmail.com
Abstract: Plasma pre-treatment represents the key enabler technology for microfine cleaning, surface activation and plasma coating of almost all types of materials — from plastics, metals, and glasses to textiles, composites and photographs. More and more conventional industrial treatment methods are being replaced by plasma technology in order to make processes more effective and environmentally friendly. This study is oriented on the characterization of a photographic image on two types of photographic paper (glossy and matt photographic paper with a barite layer), and monitoring the effects induced by the Atmospheric Discharge with Runaway Electrons (ADRE) plasma in air atmosphere on the photographic image layers. To evaluate their long-term stability before/after plasma treatment, degradation of black and white gelatin photographic components upon accelerated light aging using Q-SUN was investigated and the photoinduced changes were recorded by FTIR spectroscopy, densitometry, and colorimetry. The results obtained demonstrated that the plasma discharge had no significant destructive effect on the photographic image as only negligible changes in the structure of the gelatin were detected due to plasma processing. Consequently, it can be concluded that low-temperature ADRE plasma in air atmosphere has the potential for successful applications in microbial decontamination and purification of damaged gelatin photographs.
Keywords: ADRE plasma, colorimetry, densitometry, FTIR spectroscopy, gelatin photography
Full paper in Portable Document Format: acs_0322.pdf
Acta Chimica Slovaca, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2019, pp. 27—33, DOI: 10.2478/acs-2019-0005