Sandstone protection by using nanocomposite coating of silica

Water is one of the main causes of damage to cultural relics. Considering that a large number of outdoor sandstone cultural relics are extremely vulnerable to damage, protecting the sandstone historical relics is of great significance to the contemporary world artistic heritage. In this work, we studied the protective effect of Isobutyltriethoxysilane modified silica ([email protected]2) nano-coating on sandstone cultural relics exposed to outdoor environments, preventing water, ultraviolet radiation, and the destructive effect of condensation. To determine the protective effect of the coating, the water contact angle (WCA) and physical and chemical properties of sandstone after artificial accelerated environmental aging and damp-heat aging were evaluated. The results show that the sandstone sprayed with the nanocomposite coating has good thermal and environmental stability and is still good superhydrophobic and self-cleaning properties after 200 h aging cycles.