COMPLEX
In the COMPLEX project (2018–19) conservators worked with scientists to develop innovative methods to maintain plastic objects’ integrity and significance in museum collections.

4 April 2018
Background
Modern polymeric objects including plastics are the product of human ingenuity and have played a leading role in shaping modern society. They are collected by museums, archives and galleries to document, interpret and reflect on the enormous changes the world has seen in the last 150 years. However, they degrade faster than many more traditional materials and some modern art pieces have already fallen apart.
Aims
COMPLEX aimed to understand, model and predict the degradation of plastics in museum collections and in turn to provide a new way of understanding polymer degradation, while providing practical advice to heritage professionals caring for plastic artefacts.
Objectives
To be able to understand different degradation mechanisms and the way in which they act synergistically and cause degradation to plastic objects so as to provide evidence-based approaches to storing and displaying such objects in museums, COMPLEX’s objectives were to:
- develop systems dynamics models, that incorporated multiple chemical and physical interactions between the components of plastic objects and environmental parameters.
- provide insight into what governs objects’ behaviour and facilitate the identification of the key factors that affect change of objects over time.
- use the system dynamics models for predicting the degradation behaviour of plastic objects over time under different scenarios.
- provide practical solutions for heritage professionals.
- inform how policy change/creation for the storage and display of plastic objects in museums and galleries.
Outcomes
Through work with chemists, conservation scientists and chemical engineers and collaborations with the Museum of London, Tate, Process System Enterprise and Lacerta Technology, the COMPLEX project successfully:
- developed new insights into the way water, acetic acid and plasticiser interact with each other as cellulose acetate degrades.
- measured fundamental material properties such as diffusion and partition coefficients and explored how these depend on material and environmental parameters.
- explored a wide range of analytical tools for understanding material properties such as FTIR and NMR spectroscopy and Dynamic Vapour Sorption.
- created tools that can be used to explore the impact of conservation decisions on object stability, such as the use of cold storage or the impact of sealed versus open storage.
Activities
- 2018
- The Advisory Board Meeting provided the COMPLEX team with great feedback for their research conducted in the first six months.
- Dr Simoni Da Ros won the poster prize in the “Applications of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry Conference / TAC 2018” in Belfast. The poster presented the innovative use of differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis for determining the glass transition temperature of historic cellulose nitrate materials.
- The COMPLEX team presented significant research findings at the SEAHA Conference.
- Dr Simoni Da Ros presented her research on moisture content determination in cellulose nitrate-based museum artefacts by using dielectric thermal analysis.
- Dr Argyro Gili presented her work on the application of mathematical modelling techniques to investigate the diffusion of diethyl phthalate plasticiser from cellulose acetate artefacts in museums and collections.
- PhD student Isabella del Gaudio presented interesting findings from studying the sorption and diffusion mechanism of water vapour in cellulose nitrate and cellulose acetate.
- PhD student Ida Ahmad presented her work on investigating the hydrolytic degradation of cellulose acetate artefacts by using mathematical modelling techniques.
- A long-term ageing experiment was set up by the COMPLEX team at the Museum of London and Tate. Sacrificial cellulose acetate and cellulose nitrate combs from the early 1930’s (donated by collector Jen Cruse in a variety of shapes and different states of deterioration) were placed in the museums different preservation environments, and will be monitored and recorded over a period of five years.
- Dr Argyro Gili and PhD student Ida Ahmad attended the Gordon Research Conference “Scientific Methods for Cultural Heritage - Leading Edge Applications of Data Science, Degradation Science, and Conservation Strategies for Cultural Heritage" from the 22nd - 27th July in Castelldefels, Spain. Dr Argyro Gili presented her work on mathematical modelling of plasticiser loss from artefacts preserved in enclosures and Ida Ahmad presented her work on mathematical modelling of vinegar syndrome in cellulose acetate artefacts.
- COMPLEX was well-represented at the "IIC 2018 Turin Congress - Preventive Conservation: The State of the Art" conference.
- PI Dr Katherine Curran presented a poster which outlined the concept of COMPLEX entitled “A System Dynamics Approach to the Preventive Conservation of Modern Polymeric Materials in Collections”.
- PhD student Isabella del Gaudio presented her research on moisture sorption in cellulose acetate.
- Many other ISH and SEAHA students also presented their research at this prestigious conference.
- The COMPLEX team took part in a survey at Tate Britain to identify material type in artefacts which are suspected to be constituted of cellulose acetate and cellulose nitrate. Senior Conservation Scientist Dr. Joyce Townsend, Conservation Manager Deborah Cane, Conservator Valeria Duplat and Conservation Scientist Dr Judith Lee from Tate Britain have worked collaboratively with the COMPLEX team to conduct a visual condition assessment of the objects.
- PhD student Ida Ahmad presented a poster at the IIC-ITCC symposium on “Scientific Approaches to Paper and Photograph Conservation” hosted at the Palace Museum, Beijing. The poster presented simulation results obtained by mathematical modelling of cellulose acetate film undergoing degradation in different types of storage environments. Ida was awarded a generous travel scholarship from the Beishantang Foundation, based on the poster abstract submission.
- 2019
- The COMPLEX team received first round of sampling and analysis for the long-term ageing experiment at Tate and the Museum of London. After exposing a set of combs and fresh samples in museum environmental conditions in different preservation environments for only 6 months deterioration signs were already detected.
- PhD student Isabella del Gaudio took part in a survey at the Museum of London in collaboration with Abby Moore, Collection Care Conservator to identify historic plastic in real museum objects.
- The COMPLEX team in collaboration with SEAHA PhD students participated at a survey at Tate identifying the types of historic plastic in components of an artwork consisting of plastic dolls. Identification revealed different types of plastic material in different dolls and noted severe signs of deterioration in some cases.
- The COMPLEX team went through their second Advisory Board Meeting with inspiring research findings over the last year presented to a panel of Academics and Professionals in Science and Conservation. Presentations were followed by an enlightening panel discussion which provided very good feedback for present findings and useful suggestions for future research work. The advisory panel constituted of:
- Prof. Norman Billingham Professor of Chemistry at University of Brighton
- Dr. Robert Bowles Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mathematics
- Professor Susan Lambert Head of Museum of Design in Plastics
- Dr. Yvonne Shashoua Senior Research Scientist in Modern Materials at the National Museum of Denmark
- Prof. Matija Strlič Professor of Heritage Science from the Institute for Sustainable Heritage
- Prof. Caroline van Eck Professor of Art History from the University of Cambridge
- Ms. Louise Wright Principal Research Scientist from the National Physical Laboratory specialising in modelling work.
- COMPLEX participated with great success at The Plastics Heritage Congress 2019 in Lisbon, and received great feedback from attendees and experts in the field.
- PI Dr Katherine Curran and PhD student Ida Ahmad present their work on “A System Dynamics Approach to Modelling Degradation in Historic Polymeric Materials”.
- Dr Simoni Da Ros and PhD student Isabella del Gaudio present recent findings from the long-term degradation experiment that has been set up from the team investigating deterioration in Cellulose Acetate and Cellulose Nitrate in real museum storage environments.
- Dr Argyro Gili and PhD student Rose King present their work on plasticiser loss from Cellulose Acetate in different environmental scenarios.
- PI Dr Katherine Curran together with Dr Luca Mazzei from UCL Chemical Engineering department and Dr Argyro Gili visited the National Physical Laboratory to discuss ideas on physical damage in plastic artefacts with experts in the field.
- COMPLEX team organised the first partners meeting. Representatives from Tate, Process System Enterprise Ltd., Lacerta Technology Ltd. and UCL Chemical Engineering department attended the meeting in an enlightening multi-disciplinary spirit. Ideas on improving storage conditions in museums, understanding physical damage in plastic artefacts, using partners software for modelling purposes and multidisciplinary publications were amongst the topics that were discussed during the meeting.
- PI Dr Katherine Curran was invited at the International Conference “PLASTICS FOREVER?” at the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden to present the scope of COMPLEX project: “The degradation of complex polymeric objects in heritage collections: A system dynamics approach” and findings on plasticiser loss and chain scission from Cellulose Acetate artefacts.
- PhD student Isabella del Gaudio presented her preliminary findings on the stability of cellulose acetate in museum environments at the Polymer Degradation Discussion Group in Malta.
People
The COMPLEX team

Dr Katherine Curran
Principal Investigator
Funding
COMPLEX received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 716390).
The information provided in this website reflects COMPLEX project’s team views. The Agency and the Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

Image credit
Unsplash: Laura Boccola