Publication
Title
Plumbonacrite identified by X-ray powder diffraction tomography as a missing link during degradation of red lead in a Van Gogh painting
Author
Abstract
Red lead, a semiconductor pigment used by artists since antiquity, is known to undergo several discoloration phenomena. These transformations are either described as darkening of the pigment caused by the formation of either plattnerite (β-PbO2) or galena (PbS) or as whitening by which red lead is converted into anglesite (PbSO4) or (hydro)cerussite (2 PbCO3⋅Pb(OH)2; PbCO3). X-ray powder diffraction tomography, a powerful analytical method that allows visualization of the internal distribution of different crystalline compounds in complex samples, was used to investigate a microscopic paint sample from a Van Gogh painting. A very rare lead mineral, plumbonacrite (3 PbCO3⋅ Pb(OH)2⋅PbO), was revealed to be present. This is the first reported occurrence of this compound in a painting dating from before the mid 20th century. It constitutes the missing link between on the one hand the photoinduced reduction of red lead and on the other hand (hydro)cerussite, and thus sheds new light on the whitening of red lead.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Angewandte Chemie: international edition in English. - Weinheim
Publication
Weinheim : 2015
ISSN
1433-7851
0570-0833
DOI
10.1002/ANIE.201411691
Volume/pages
54 :12 (2015) , p. 3607-3610
ISI
000351178300008
Pubmed ID
25703204
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
SOLARPAINT: Understanding the durability of light sensitive materials: transferring insights between solar cell physics and the chemistry of paintings.
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 13.04.2015
Last edited 09.10.2023
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