Ion plating plasma assisted SiO 2 and TiO 2 protective nano-coatings for antique ceramics preservation AVERSA Raffaella 1,a , PERROTTA Valeria 1b , MISIANO Carlo 2,c and APICELLA Antonio 1,d 1 Advanced Material Lab, Department of Architecture and Industrial Design Second University of Naples, 81031 Aversa (CE) ITALY 2 Romana film Sottili Srl, ITALY a raffaella.aversa@unina2.it , b valeria.perrotta@unina2.it, c carlo.misiano@libero.it, d antonio.apicella@unina2.it Keywords: Ion Plating Plasma Assisted, protective coatings, ancient ceramic tiles Abstract. The application of Ion Plating Plasma Assisted technology in the field of preservation of Cultural Heritage is presented. In order to guaranty the preservation of the artistic and cultural identity of ancient ceramic tiles with strong chromatic valence, not-invasive, and achromatic and antireflective coating deposition processes have been investigated. Different ceramic supports have been utilized for the tests: an ancient tile of the XIX century and contemporaneous production tiles, all characterized by strong chromatic valence and by a mixed porous and glazed surfaces. Ion Plating Plasma Assisted (IPPA) by reactive magnetron sputtering source with Argon and Oxygen atmosphere for TiO 2 and IPPA by thermal source with Argon and Oxygen from SiO material have been adopted. Preliminary tests with two plasma treatments were carried out on contemporaneous tile samples in order to find the optimal processing conditions. TiO 2 treatment has generated discoloration on the surface of the coating while the SiO 2 coating showed achromatic and transparency properties. The ancient historical tile was used to finally test the optimized process with SiO 2 . Traditional organic resin spray coating treatments have been carried out for aesthetical comparative purposes with the new plasma treatment. Introduction Preserving cultural heritage is a general concern and the use of not-invasive techniques to protect and conserve ancient materials is an important challenge. Serious surface deterioration effects in environmentally exposed ancient pavements glazed ceramic tiles arise both from mechanical abrasion due to the tourist passage and for the development of micro-organisms (algae/fungi) within the pore system. Exfoliation often follows from biodegradation processes that are particularly harmful since leading to the decorated glaze severe damage [1,2]. The use of traditional organic resin spray coating or wax treatments may partially reduce the problem but they seriously alter the tiles chromatic aesthetics. Cleaning and conservation of these ancient cultural handcrafts, therefore, need surface process applying innovative non-invasive techniques. The present work is intended as a contribution to propose new technologies for the deposition of protective coatings preventing degradation of ancient tiles. The development in protection treatment in which the introduction of an IPPA process by thermal source [3,4] seems to be very promising with respect to process using traditional organic polymeric coatings. The growing demand for multi-layered thin film deposition opens new applications for sputter technology. The deposition of highly strength oxide layers such as SiO 2 and TiO 2 used in this study, has turned out to be rather satisfactory innovation of great practical significance in several field of application. The use of such techniques in the area of historical heritage conservation is proposed in this study.