Abstract
The application of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to the analysis of paint flakes from a painting by Henry Fuseli (1741–1825) is presented. Historically, the application of XPS to art conservation and restoration studies has been limited by the poor spatial resolution of the technique. Presented here is the successful analysis of paint flakes in the order of 100 μm using “imaging” XPS in conjunction with selected area analysis. Raman microscopy failed to satisfactorily identify the compounds present in this instance, and energy dispersive spectroscopy could not differentiate between lead and sulphur (two of the elements of interest) due to the limited energy resolution inherent in that technique. Using XPS analysis of the lead 4f peak revealed that the pigment was a lead-based pigment, in this case comprising exclusively lead-sulphur compounds.
Highlights
A large variety of materials characterization techniques are employed in the field of cultural heritage conservation
The most commonly used of the spectroscopic techniques are Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) [1, 2] and Raman spectroscopy [3,4,5], usually used in conjunction with light microscopy these techniques offer good spatial resolution, can analyse small samples, and can be used in situ
This paper presents the results of analysis of a pigment flake, approximately 100 μm, across exploiting imaging X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and selected area analysis
Summary
A large variety of materials characterization techniques are employed in the field of cultural heritage conservation. The most commonly used of the spectroscopic techniques are Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) [1, 2] and Raman spectroscopy [3,4,5], usually used in conjunction with light microscopy these techniques offer good spatial resolution, can analyse small samples, and can be used in situ. Research Letters in Materials Science appearance of certain parts of the image, suggesting that the pigment may have originally been lighter Artists of this period had limited pigments available to them and of the whites both lead sulphate and lead carbonate are notoriously unstable. Very small samples of paint were available for analysis and attempts were made to confirm the identity of the pigment compounds using Raman spectroscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) but without conclusive results. XPS analysis was used in this instance attempting to confirm the suspected identity of the lead compounds
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