6533b862fe1ef96bd12c6c8f
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Electrochemical Age Determinations of Metallic Specimens—Utilization of the Corrosion Clock
Fritz ScholzAntonio Doménech-carbósubject
MetalMaterials sciencevisual_artMetallurgyvisual_art.visual_art_mediumGeneral MedicineGeneral ChemistryElectrochemistryCorrosiondescription
Dating needs an age-dependent phenomenon (a "clock"), a procedure for monitoring the advance of time by measuring a physicochemical quantity, and, in the case of archeological artifacts, a sampling procedure that guarantees the representativity and integrity of the dated objects. Metal corrosion in an aerobic atmosphere is a phenomenon whose advance can in principle be used as a clock that depends on the environmental conditions. In spite of the limitation imposed by differences in local conditions of corrosion, a new approach for age determinations has been developed and applied as a feasible tool for age determinations of metallic specimens studied by archeologists and historians. These techniques allow the recording of specific electrochemical features characterizing the state of growth of corrosion patinas, i.e., they are based on corrosion clocks. The application of corrosion clocks for age determination is possible in favorable cases where the corrosion happened to proceed uniformly and continuously. The proposed methods for dating of lead, copper/bronze, leaded bronze, and gold are mainly based on the voltammetry of immobilized particles (VIMP). This technique is exceptionally useful in the archeological domain because it requires only submicrogram sample amounts and permits sampling of different locations on the object, thus yielding representative data collected essentially noninvasively. Reported methods for dating of metals include lead, copper/bronze, and gold, obviously in all cases assuming uniform conditions of corrosion in a moderately aggressive environment. In the case of lead, age markers are porous PbO and PbO
year | journal | country | edition | language |
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2019-01-08 | Accounts of Chemical Research |