Tag Archives: Echo Xie

Preserving stone and repairing historic Church of the Scalzi in Venice (Italy) with nanotechnology

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Since stone wear down and away with time these researchers from China and Italy are trying to find ways to mitigate the damage. (At the end of this piece I have a list of other posts about stone buildings and monuments, preservation, and nanotechnology.)

From an August 23, 2023 news snippet by Echo Xie for the South China Morning Post, Note: Links have been removed,

A team of Chinese and Italian researchers has restored parts of a 300-year-old Catholic church in Venice, Italy, using modern nanotechnology.

The Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth [Church of the Scalzi], which overlooks the Grand Canal and is a prime example of Venetian Baroque architecture, is the beneficiary of a patented method developed to consolidate, or treat, marble stones damaged by time and the elements.The research was funded by the Veneto regional government, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Ministry of Science and Technology’s belt and road foreign expert exchange programme [part of the Belt and Road Initiative?].

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There’s a more extended Sept. 6, 2023 snippet about the research on Vuink,

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The cutting-edge method could be used to restore landmarks of world-class cultural heritage – including the Pantheon, Trajan’s Column and the Victoria Memorial in London as well as historic sculptures – made from marble similar to the church [Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth]

The research team, led by scientists at China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xian and the CNR [National Research Council of Italy]-Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources in Florence, Italy, found an “effective and enduring” method to consolidate marble stones after the design and systematic study of nine different treatment methods.

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Ivana Milanovic’s, ASME [American Society of Mechanical Engineers] Fellow’s Post [undated] on LinkedIn provides more details,

… They [research team] discovered the combination of two commonly used consolidation products – nanosilica and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) – had the highest consolidating effect among all tested materials.

In the study published in the peer-reviewed journal [Science China Technological Sciences], the authors used a two-step method to consolidate the marble stones. They first applied nanosilica with dimensions less than 10nm to the surface of the stone using a poultice, a paste-like material, to cover the stone. The nanosilica particles could then penetrate as deep as 5cm (2 inches) into the pores of the stone and consolidate it. Then they used the same poultice method and put TEOS on the surface, which could enhance the stone’s hardness or mechanical strength. …

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Enhanced consolidation efficacy and durability of highly porous calcareous building stones enabled by nanosilica-based treatments by YiJian Cao, Mara Camaiti, Monica Endrizzi, Giorgio Forti, Ernesta Vergani & Ilaria Forti. Science China Technological Sciences volume 66, pages 2197–2212 (2023 Published May 18, 2023

This paper is behind a paywall. However, it is possible to request a PDF copy of the paper from the authors on their Research Gate “Enhanced consolidation efficacy and durability of highly porous calcareous building stones enabled by nanosilica-based treatments” webpage,

My other stone postings:

That should be enough, eh?