Samuel Breidbart is 19 years old sophomore at Yale University. He has not chosen a major field of study at this time but his interests include history, philosophy, and art history. He has already taken courses in all of these disciplines.

When he was a sophomore at Syosset High School in Syosset, New York, he took an advanced placement course in the history of art. During that course, the class visited several art museums in New York City and he became interested in art conservation. He was enrolled in an honors chemistry class that year in high school and began to do some research on the chemistry involved in art materials. The following year, as a junior, he began to define his research on one particular material, iron gall ink, and contacted Dr. Joseph Landesberg, Chairman of the Chemistry Department at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, to help him formulate a plan for his project. Under the mentorship of Dr. Landesberg, he completed this research during the summer and fall of 2006. In his project, "Using a Ferrozine/ Hydroquinone Treatment to Inhibit Cellulose Oxidation Caused by Iron Gall Ink", he developed a remedy for aging and degradation in old manuscripts. Samuel was an Intel Science Talent Search National Semifinalist and Junior Science and Humanities Symposium National Finalist for this work. He also spent time studying old documents at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.

As a result of this research, he will always have an appreciation for museum and document conservation as a part of history that we have to protect.



“Conserving History: Using a Ferrozine/Hydroquinone Treatment to Inhibit Cellulose Oxidation in Iron Gall Ink”

Historic recipes indicate that iron(II) was often added in excess to iron gall ink, the most popular European writing media from the 10th through 19th centuries. The excess is problematic; during color formation, the iron(II) binds with tannins in a 1:1 ratio. The unbound iron(II) is catalyitically active and uses atmospheric oxygen  to begin a sequence of cellulose oxidation reactions wherein highly reactive hydroperoxyl and hydroxyl radicals are formed. Each radical extracts a hydrogen atom from the cellulose paper to stabilize, leading to extensive perforation of the paper. Ferrozine acts as a chelating agent of iron(II) ions. Hydroquinone acts a radical scavenger by donating hydrogen atoms and converting to stable parabenzoquinone. FTIR spectral analysis of sample documents treated with a ferrozine/hydroquinone solution reveals that the celluose maintains its integrity.