ABSTRACT
The evaluation of conservative treatments' efficacy on natural building stones are usually based on standard recommendation routines finalized to evaluate compatibility and harmfulness of products in turn of the substrate. However, the visualization and the quantification of products inside pore structure of natural stones is not immediate through standard tests, so that imaging and advanced techniques are recently proposed in material conservation field to improve knowledge on penetration depth, modification of pore-air interface at different scale and monitor dynamic absorption processes. Moreover, natural stones are usually characterized by complex structure, which changes due to conservative treatments have to be inspected at different scale (from micrometer to nanometer). In this prospective, the assessment of laboratory practices able to integrate multiscale methods and give back a complete overview on interaction between new conservative formulates and natural stones is of high interest. In this paper, we propose a methodological routine for efficacy assessment of conservative products, incorporating classical and innovative nondestructive techniques. Validation of the workflow has been verified on a high porous natural stone treated with new hybrid formulates appropriately customized for conservation issues. â¢The study intends to add new insights on problems related to consolidation of high porous carbonate stone, application methods in consolidating natural stones and methods to evaluate efficacy of new products.â¢A multi-scale laboratory investigation procedure is proposed by integrating standard and innovative nondestructive methods. Merits and limits of each applied method are discussed during validation.â¢The possibility to incorporate standard routines and/or substitute destructive testing with non-destructive ones seem to be a valid alternative to evaluate efficiency and monitor behavior of stones treated with consolidating products.
ABSTRACT
Fluid inclusions in the quartz crystals present in gold-rich veins from central Honduras have been studied by means of micro-thermometry and micro-Raman spectroscopy in order to provide information on the physico-chemical conditions and chemical composition of the mineralizing fluids. The use of a confocal micro-Raman apparatus allowed to obtain information on the fluid composition, in particular on the gas phase, minimizing the contributions of the host matrix to the Raman signal. The samples studied were collected from an area (Lepaguare mining district, Northern-Central Honduras) rich in ore deposits due to the Cenozoic magmatic activity, where the gold and sulphide mineralization is connected with a system of quartz veins (few decimetres thick) occurring in low-grade metamorphic rocks and produced by hydrothermal fluids. The quartz crystals present in the gold-rich veins often contain fluid inclusions. Four types of fluid inclusions have been observed, but their assemblage in the same clusters and fracture systems, as well as their comparable salinity and homogenization data, suggest that they have the same origin. Micro-thermometry and Raman spectroscopy provide a composition of the mineralizing fluids attributable to the system H(2)O-NaCl-KCl-CO(2)-CH(4), with temperature and pressure intervals of 210-413 degrees C and 1050-3850 bar, respectively. These data agree with an epigenetic origin of the gold deposit (depth < 6 km) related to granitoid or granodiorite intrusions associated to orogenic environments.
Subject(s)
Quartz/analysis , Spectrum Analysis, Raman/methods , Central America , Mining , TemperatureABSTRACT
Two holy water fonts (dated at the beginning of the XVII century) in the Santa Maria della Steccata Church in Parma (Italy) have recently been restored. Before the intervention, a detailed investigation on their degradation products was carried out to understand the mechanisms of alteration of the materials and to suggest appropriate restoration procedures. The analyses were performed by means of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), micro-Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and micro-Raman spectroscopies. Calcite, iron oxides, silicates and sodium chloride (from salted holy water) were found in the red coloured calcarenite. On and under the lead coverings, different lead oxides (mainly massicot), other lead salts (lead basic carbonate, cerussite, plumbonacrite Pb10O(OH)6(CO3)6 and lead-chlorine compounds as laurionite PbOHCl and phosgenite Pb2CO3Cl2) were identified by Raman spectroscopy and XRD. Haematite alpha-Fe2O3, goethite alpha-FeO(OH) and lepidocrocite gamma-FeO(OH) were found on and around the iron hinges. Lead compounds and sodium chloride, through crystallization and solubilization cycles, were responsible for the stone's degradation, whereas the iron corrosion materials on the hinges produced mechanical stress and cracks in the stone. Various suggestions have been given on how to restore these fonts and to remove the causes of damage.
ABSTRACT
Pump-probe photoinduced birefringence measurements were carried out in amorphous and in nanostructured sol-gel films with Disperse Red 1 (DR1) azochromophores embedded in a SiO2 matrix. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns determine the long-range nanostructure order of the films, exhibiting a lamellar nanostructure, with two different d-spacings, due to the presence during the sol-gel process of the Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) or of the Cetyltrimethylammonium Bromide (CTAB) ionic surfactants. The photoinduced birefringence measurements were performed on fresh and on heat treated films as a function of the pumping time. The measurements give us information about the effect of the nanostructures on the azochromophores orientation dynamics. As a result, for the same azochromophores concentration, annealed nanostructured films exhibited the largest azochromophore mobilities but by the other side, amorphous films had the largest signal intensities. Besides, we established a phenomenological model for the analysis of the azochromophores orientation in the films as a function of the pumping time.