In-situ growth synthesis of nanolime/kaolin nanocomposite for strongly consolidating highly porous dinosaur fossil

Due to the excellent compatibility and ageing-resistant performance, nanolime (NL) as a promising inorganic material is applied to consolidate aged sandstones and other arenaceous rocks based cultural heritage, such as wall paintings and stone relics. However, sometimes, NL does not assure a good consolidation strength for cultural relics. The existing researches on enhancing its consolidation strength are costly, time-consuming or still involving organic polymers. Here, utilizing inexpensive kaolin nanosheets as platform, we design and facilely synthesize a new nanolime/kaolin (N-K) nanocomposite by in-situ growth of Ca(OH)₂ nanoparticles on the surface of kaolin nanosheets. The kinetic stability of this nanocomposite is comparable to the NL. Application experiment shows that the consolidation strength of the N-K nanocomposite in the highly porous pterosaur fossil (65%, porosity) is stronger than that of NL. The reason is due to the incorporation of kaolin nanosheets into the CaCO₃ network after carbonation. For the first time, this work reports a new N-K inorganic nanocomposite and will facilitate the development of NL-based inorganic materials for the conservation of cultural heritage.