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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

A graphene cloak keeps artworks’ colours ageless

A layer of carbon atoms preserves a painting’s vibrant hues — and can be applied and removed without damage.
Ageing of an artwork with graphene

After 130 hours of artificial ageing by visible light, the painting Triton and Nereid has lost some of the purple tint to the figures’ right, but a graphene film kept the bright pink at upper left undimmed. Credit: M. Kotsidi et al./Nature Nanotechnol.

The colours on half of the painting Triton and Nereid faded as it languished in a bright, warm and humid chamber. Those on the other half, however, held fast, protected by an invisible ‘veil’ of graphene.

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Nature 595, 335 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01854-7

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