Abstract
AbstractProtecting metallic cultural heritage from corrosion is a major challenge for metal conservators. Electrochemical techniques offer a great potential for monitoring the conservation condition of this type of heritage, providing a powerful tool for designing conservation strategies. For this reason, the application of techniques such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has aroused increasing interest in recent years, although some difficulties in application and interpretation of the results still keep it from being routine practice. This Review aims to picture the state‐of‐the‐art of using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) for the in situ monitoring of metallic cultural heritage, focusing on spectra interpretation and different approaches that have been proposed to perform field measurements since the 1990’s. In the first part of the Review, different cell designs based on the use of liquid or solid electrolytes for in situ measurements are reviewed. In the second part, a few general equivalent circuits are proposed as a basis for interpreting results on different metal surfaces after discussing different models proposed in literature. This overview intends to summarize and clarify the key points in the use of EIS, and encourage the use of this and other electrochemical techniques in the field of conservation science, for a better preservation of our cultural heritage.
Highlights
Scientific analytical methods have become an essential tool in the study and conservation of cultural heritage[1]
The study of corrosion products has some limitations for conservation purposes, as they are the result of past events or past situations, and they give a clue on the stability of the object, they cannot provide an unequivocal diagnostic of the present situation
As it has been shown in this review, the increasing interest in the use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in cultural heritage has been noticeable in the present decade
Summary
Scientific analytical methods have become an essential tool in the study and conservation of cultural heritage[1]. Microscopy techniques allow studying the morphology and structure of corrosion layers, either in surface or in cross-section, being scanning electron microscopy the most used Other techniques such as radiography and tomography are very valuable tools to determine their internal structure and conservation, being almost indispensable in the case of archaeological metals[2]. The study of corrosion products has some limitations for conservation purposes, as they are the result of past events or past situations, and they give a clue on the stability of the object, they cannot provide an unequivocal diagnostic of the present situation They require the analysis of a representative number of samples, from the surface to the metal core. Spectroscopy can tell if an organic coating has experimented chemical changes, but not how these changes have affected the corrosion protection properties of the coating
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