Towards the development of a novel CNTs-based flexible mild heater for art conservation

Indexed in ISI and SCOPUS. Mild heating devices currently available to conservators are still limited in terms of precision, versatility, mobility, accessibility and cost. Moreover, they lack a whole range of operational features, such as low power requirements, efficient power use, temperature stability and uniform heat distribution. Carbon nanotubes-based technologies can provide a wide range of technical solutions to overcome these limitations thus allowing the development of more precise, flexible and portable heating devices. This work describes the design of an innovative carbon nanotubes-based intelligent mobile accurate thermo-electrical mild heating device, to be used in the art conservation field. The device consists of three different kinds of flexible heating mats with different designs (opaque and ultra-thin/woven and breathable/transparent) with different operational and physical properties. The whole heating system is completed by a control unit that controls, monitors and registers the heating process and by a power supply unit. First tests performed on a series of prototypes of the designed heaters show that the device is able to convey uniform heating on different working materials, thus proving to be effective for thermal consolidation.