The conservation of plastic artefacts is an area of interest for curators and conservators of cultural heritage. Many museums contain artefacts that are made wholly or partly from plastic and these objects may be present in collections ranging from jewellery to spacesuits. The stability of these polymeric materials is a concern for conservators, particularly as plastic objects can exhibit severe degradation which can occur suddenly and without warning.

The natural soiling of objects in museum collections results in a need to clean plastic artefacts for aesthetic reasons and to maintain artistic integrity. The contamination of plastics with particulate matter may also facilitate degradation. However, the act of cleaning may itself result in damage to an artefact, either immediately after treatment or at a later date. The issue is compounded by the many different types of plastics present in collections: a treatment for one object may be unsuitable for another.

This work examines the physical and chemical changes to the surface of poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) that has been treated with a range of cleaning techniques commonly used in conservation. Methods include the application of solvents and surfactants to the substrate surface. Physical changes to the surface have been examined using microscopy techniques while secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has been used to characterise the chemical changes to the substrate. The efficacy of these cleaning methods to remove an artificial soil from the polymeric substrate is also discussed.