Eli5, if I left some valuable collectible, say, a car or a paining in am hermetically sealed room filled with pure argon and nothing else, and had it completely protected from UV radiation, would it ever decay or degrade?

Question

Eli5, if I left some valuable collectible, say, a car or a paining in am hermetically sealed room filled with pure argon and nothing else, and had it completely protected from UV radiation, would it ever decay or degrade?

In: 121

Answer 1

It would definitely degrade, and faster than you might hope. All of the plastics, rubbers, synthetic fibers, weather stripping and paint are going to keep breaking down regardless of the presence of oxygen and light. The process may be slowed in some cases, but museums are starting to confront this issue with their modern collections. I remember one article about a panicked curator wondering why a moonshot-era spacesuit was breaking down, even in an airtight case. They found that the rubber hoses and gaskets were breaking down and releasing acidic vapors which then attacked the cloth and metal.

A car has loads of solvents, petrochemicals and such in and on it, and they would all break down and release god-knows-what. Even if you constantly flushed the atmosphere with more argon you’d only slow the process, not stop it.