A study of the Chinese organic-inorganic hybrid sealing material used in 'huaguang No.1' ancient wooden ship

摘要

Chu-nam putty is a special organic-inorganic hybrid material invented by ancient Chinese people. It was prepared by mixing tung-oil, lime and oakum (plant fibers like jute, ramie and so on) with excellent sealing performance. The invention and application of Chu-nam putty in wooden ship lead to improvement in sailing technology and ship safety issue. In this paper, the analytical results of a piece of chu-nam putty which was discovered in "Huaguang No.1" ancient ship are presented. The results show that the components of chu-nam putty are calcite, carboxylate and unsaturated esters by means of FT-IR, XRD and TGA/DSC. And the FT-IR and cross-section microscopic analysis confirm that the oakum was from jute. Comparing with the modeling putty samples it is found that the outstanding sealing performance of chu-nam putty comes from the coordination reaction of Ca~(2+) from the Ca(OH) _2 and the oxidation aggregation reaction of CC double bonds in unsaturated fatty acid.