X-ray diffraction studies of Pompeian wall paintings using synchrotron radiation and dedicated laboratory made systems

Abstract

The full identification of artwork materials requires not only elemental analysis but also structural information of the compounds as provided by X-ray diffraction (XRD). This is easily done when taking samples (or micro-samples) from artworks. However, there is an increasing interest in performing non-destructive studies that require adapted XRD systems. Comparative study of synchrotron high-resolution X-ray powder diffraction (SR-HRPD) and laboratory non-destructive systems (portable XRD and micro-XRD) is the main objective of this work. There are no qualitative differences among the three systems as for detected phases in the Pompeian wall paintings that were studied, except in the case of minority phases which only were detected by SR-HRPD. The identified pigments were goethite, hematite, cinnabar, glauconite, Pompeian blue, together with calcite, dolomite and aragonite. Synchrotron XRD diagrams show better resolution than the others. In general, the peak widths in the diagrams obtained with the portable XRD system are similar to those obtained by micro-diffraction equipment. Factors such as residual divergence of X-ray sources, incidence angle and slit or collimator size are discussed in relation with the quality of XRD diagrams.