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Fig. 7 | Heritage Science

Fig. 7

From: Shine a light on papyrus: monitoring the aging process

Fig. 7

Top row: Molecular weight distributions of artificially aged papyri without (a) and with light influence (b), as detected by SEC-MALS. Middle row: c Decrease of weight-average molecular weight (Mw) and carboxyl groups (COOH) with aging time. To visualize the degradation of cellulose alone (without the hemicellulose contribution), the chromatograms were deconvoluted and only the Mw of the cellulose peaks (right side of a + b) was considered. Error bars indicate the standard deviation of two measurements per time step for the amount of carboxyl groups. d Different populations of (hemi-)cellulose chains in light-aged papyri. Long chains (red) are degraded and the Mw is shifted to shorter chains lengths (blue). Hemicelluloses are found in the green peak. The chromatogram of an unaged papyrus sample (gray) is shown for comparison. Bottom row: Example chromatograms/RI-signals (gray) of samples aged for 22 d in darkness (e) and for 43 d under light influence (f). The colored lines in e + f reflect the fluorescence of the MALS detector, especially for f with the light-aged samples

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