Solid-state electrochemical characterization of emissions and authorities producing Roman brass coins

2020

[EN] The voltammetry of immobilized particles (VIMP) is applied to describe the solid state electrochemistry of brass. This methodology, which involves sampling at the nanogram level, is applied to discriminate mints/authorities producing different Roman monetary emissions covering since the Republic (88 BCE) to Domitianus (55-96 CE) Upon attachment to graphite electrodes in contact with aqueous acetate buffer at pH 4.75, well defined voltarnmetric responses were obtained centered on Cu- and Zn-localized signals whose intensity can be correlated to EMP data, being sensitive to the contents of Zn (15-30 wt.%) and Sn (0.01-1.1 wt.%). Voltammetric data, combined with ATR-FTIR and FIB-PESEM/EDS…