Ageing Characteristic and Volatile Change of Bloodish Amber from Myanmar in Ageing Process

Amber aging is an inevitable process in the natural environment, which can cause adverse effects such as colour deepening and turning red, hardness decreasing, and a large number of cracks on the surface, leading to the serious spalling on the surface, causing irreversible damage to the precious amber relics. This study investigated the microscopic characteristics, thermodynamic characteristics and volatile matter changes of the bloodish amber from Myanmar, and discussed the transformed relationship between physical properties and composition/structure changes in the ageing process. The degree of crosslinking structure of bloodish amber from Myanmar was gradually decreasing in ageing process, while the varieties and contents of volatiles were declining. A portion of macromolecule were oxidized and degraded to micromolecule when the colour of aged bloodish amber was turning brown, which was the vital reason of cracking production. Tetralin, 6-acetyl-8-isopropyl-2, 5-dimethyl-, as a micromolecule, could indicate the urgency of the dark conserving environment with low oxygen for aged amber from Myanmar. This research explored the analytical application of thermodynamics and chromatography/mass spectrometry in the organic gemstones, and the research results could provide protection suggestion for the aged amber relics.