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Corrosion of ancient Chinese bronze money trees studied by Raman microscopy
Author(s) -
McCann Lowell I.,
Trentelman K.,
Possley T.,
Golding B.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of raman spectroscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.748
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1097-4555
pISSN - 0377-0486
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-4555(199902)30:2<121::aid-jrs355>3.0.co;2-l
Subject(s) - bronze , raman spectroscopy , corrosion , microscopy , optical microscope , materials science , scanning electron microscope , raman microspectroscopy , metallurgy , mineralogy , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , composite material , optics , environmental chemistry , physics
Raman microscopy was used to identify corrosion products and theirlocations on and within samples from ancient Chinese bronze moneytrees to help determine the corrosive environments the treesexperienced in the past. The compounds found included Cu 2 O, CuCO 3 · Cu(OH) 2 ,2CuCO 3 · Cu(OH) 2 , PbO, PbCO 3 and PbSO 4 . In addition, a number of pigmentson the exterior were identified (ultramarine, Prussian blue,phthalocyanine blue, phthalocyanine green, Hansa yellow G and chromeyellow) which were applied to the artifacts in more recenttimes. Two‐dimensional Raman mapping was applied tocross‐sections of the artifacts to determine the spatialextent of corrosion products in the interior and to investigate theselective corrosion of different phases of the bronze. Ramanmicroscopy is shown to be a useful tool to complement moretraditional characterizations such as scanning electron microscopyand x‐ray energy‐dispersive spectrometry in theanalysis of metal artifacts. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.