HAP4MARBLE (Multi-functionalization of hydroxyapatite for restoration and preventive conservation of marble artworks) was a project funded by the European Commission through the "Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - Individual Fellowship/Global Fellowship (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014-GF)", within Horizon2020 (Project N. 655239).
HAP4MARBLE provided financial support to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, Dr. Enrico Sassoni, to receive high-level training-through-research, with the aim of deepening and diversifying his scientific expertise.
Within HAP4MARBLE, having a total duration of 36 months (Sept 1 2015 - Aug 31 2018), Dr. Sassoni worked at 3 different host Institutions, under the supervision of internationally renowned Experts:
- for 18 months at Princeton University (USA), working with Prof. George W. Scherer;
- for 6 months at the University of Göttingen (Germany), working with Prof. Siegfried Siegesmund;
- for 12 months at the University of Bologna (Italy), working with Dr. Elisa Franzoni (Coordinator of HAP4MARBLE).
The research activity within HAP4MARBLE was aimed at developing a new multi-functional treatment for conservation of marble artworks in Cultural Heritage and validating it in the field.
Marble has been widely used in architecture and sculpture since antiquity, but it is subject to several weathering processes, predicted to be worsened by future climate change. Because no commercially available treatment is fully satisfying against these weathering processes, HAP4MARBLE was aimed at multi-functionalizing a recently proposed biomimetic treatment based on hydroxyapatite (HAP), to make it able to tackle all the main marble degradation processes (i.e., sugaring, soiling, dissolution and bowing). This target required a multi-disciplinary research activity, combining materials science, biomaterials, micro-mechanics, petrophysics and Cultural Heritage conservation. Such an approach was possible by merging competences of the three international experts involved in the project and making use of laboratory facilities available at the three hosting Organizations.