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Monitoring the impact of the indoor air quality on silver cultural heritage objects using passive and continuous corrosion rate assessments

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Abstract

There is a long tradition in evaluating industrial atmospheres by measuring the corrosion rate of exposed metal coupons. The heritage community also uses this method, but the interpretation of the corrosion rate often lacks clarity due to the low corrosivity in indoor museum environments. This investigation explores the possibilities and drawbacks of different silver corrosion rate assessments. The corrosion rate is determined by three approaches: (1) chemical characterization of metal coupons using analytical techniques such as electrochemical measurements, SEM-EDX, XRD, and µ-Raman spectroscopy, (2) continuous corrosion monitoring methods based on electrical resistivity loss of a corroding nm-sized metal wire and weight gain of a corroding silver coated quartz crystal, and (3) characterization of the visual degradation of the metal coupons. This study confirms that subtle differences in corrosivity between locations inside a museum can be determined on condition that the same corrosion rate assessment is used. However, the impact of the coupon orientation with respect to the prevailing direction of air circulation can be substantially larger than the impact of the coupon location.

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Notes

  1. The AER measurements were carried out in oaken display cases by measuring the decreasing CO2 level in the display case after filling it with gas, following the procedure described in [38].

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Acknowledgments

This research has been sponsored by the Belgian Federal Public Planning Service Science Policy (BELSPO) under Project Number BR/132/A6/AIRCHECQ. In this project an innovative monitoring kit is developed that continuously and simultaneously measures both environmental parameters and material behaviour, enabling the study of the cause–effect relationships. The Quanta 250 FEG microscope at the University of Antwerp was funded by the Hercules foundation of the Flemish Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Conservation Studies, Faculty of Design Sciences, University of Antwerp, Blindestraat 9, 2000, Antwerp, Belgium

    Lucy ‘t Hart, Patrick Storme & Olivier Schalm

  2. Scientific Research, Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History, Jubelpark 3, 1000, Brussels, Belgium

    Willemien Anaf

  3. AXES, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, 2020, Antwerp, Belgium

    Gert Nuyts, Frederik Vanmeert, Walter Dorriné, Koen Janssens & Karolien de Wael

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  1. Lucy ‘t Hart
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  2. Patrick Storme
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  3. Willemien Anaf
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  5. Frederik Vanmeert
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  9. Olivier Schalm
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Correspondence to Lucy ‘t Hart.

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‘t Hart, L., Storme, P., Anaf, W. et al. Monitoring the impact of the indoor air quality on silver cultural heritage objects using passive and continuous corrosion rate assessments. Appl. Phys. A 122, 923 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-016-0456-2

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