Enhancing the Oddy test for assessing the suitability of museums display cases materials: Insights from a comparative emission study

Volatile organic compounds emitted by materials used in museum display cases pose risks to the preser- vation of cultural heritage objects. Traditional assessment methods, such as the Oddy test, present limi- tations including subjectivity and lack of chemical specificity. To strengthen the Oddy test as a reference method for assessing emissions from display case materials, two complementary variants have been integrated: a cellulose-based modification, already employed to broaden the test’s sensitivity to the degradation of organic materials, and an IR-assisted approach, which enables the identification of corrosion products and thereby enhances both the interpretation of test re- sults and the overall assessment of materials. The multimodal Oddy test approach has been supported by chromatographic techniques (μCTE-TD-GC–MS and SPME-GC–MS) on a common set of showcase materi- als. This integrated methodology revealed differences in material emissions and identified compounds poten- tially harmful to metals and organic substrates. Our findings demonstrate the advantages of combining complementary analytical methods to enhance the evaluation of material suitability for museum environ- ments. This work supports the development of more robust, sensitive, and practical protocols for selecting safer materials, thereby contributing to improved preventive conservation strategies .