Organogels for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage

The degradation of works of art, enhanced by climate change, needs to be counteracted to have Cultural Heritage express its full socioeconomic potential. Cleaning artifacts requires the confinement of fluids in retentive gel matrices to achieve safe, time-effective removal of soil, aged coatings, or vandalism from artistic/historical surfaces. This review discusses past and current research in organogels, which are largely unexplored systems to confine average or low polarity solvents. Particular focus is on bio-derived, “green”, and sustainable materials, polymers, and solvents. Perspectives in this field strongly link with current recommendations for sustainable design in materials science and multiple industrial sectors.