From laboratory to in-situ nuclear magnetic resonance diagnostics: an application to building materials of the greek-roman theatre of Taormina

Validity of NMR pore-size analysis of cultutal heritage ancient building materials containing magnetic impurities

NMR relaxation time distributions, obtained with laboratory and portable devices, are utilized to characterize the pore-size distributions of building materials coming from the Roman remains of the Greek-Roman Theatre of Taormina. To validate the interpretation of relaxation data in terms of pore-size distribution, comparison of results from standard and in situ NMR experiments with results of the mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) has been made. Although the pore-size distributions can be obtained by NMR in terms of either longitudinal (T-1) or transverse (T-2) relaxation times distributions, the shorter duration of the T-2 measurement makes it, in principle, preferable, although the dete…