Corrosion protection of brown and green patinated bronze

Abstract

Bronze surfaces, whether bare or patinated, tend to change when exposed to an outdoor atmosphere. Art made of bronze which is exposed to the outdoors is usually artificially patinated. This patina changes when exposed to rain, especially in polluted rain, where sulphuric, nitric or carbonic acids are present.In order to gain optimal protection of different patinas and consequently reduce the patina changes over the time different protection systems were developed, tested and tailored. Three types of patina (brown, green sulphate, and green persulphate) were prepared, protected and subsequently studied. The protections were based on two coatings (i) fluoropolymer based coating (FA-MS) and (ii) newly developed fluoropolymer based coating with addition of mercaptopropyl groups, named as alternative fluoropolymer coating (FA-MS-SH). Both the pure patinas applied on bronze surfaces as well as the bare bronze were electrochemically tested, first unprotected and then following the application of two different types of protection. After the protection was applied to the patinas, the change in colour was defined. Different techniques were utilised in order to define the morphology and structure of the patinas, as well as the change in colour following application of the coating. It was shown that a fluoropolymer coating (FA-MS) provided the most efficient protection to bare bronze and the sulphate patina, while a newly proposed alternative fluoropolymer coating (FA-MS-SH) offered good protection to bare and brown patinated bronze. A mechanism for the protection of bare and patinated bronze was suggested.