Microchemical study of the corrosion products on ancient bronzes by means of glow discharge optical emission spectrometry

Glow discharge optical emission spectrometry (GDOES) has been used for stud ying the corrosion product layers, i.e. the patinae, on Punic bronze artefa cts found at Tharros (western Sardinia, Italy) during an archaeological exc avation. For all these materials, the results show that via GDOES it is pos sible to obtain reliable and reproducible quantitative chemical composition for the bulk alloys by taking into account that bronze artefacts are quite inhomogeneous. Some examples of the GDOES analytical capability as element al depth-concentration profiles through thick bronze patinae are shown and briefly discussed in combination with the microchemical features obtained v ia scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM+EDS) an d x-ray diffraction (XRD), These results show that GDOES, with its ability for routine and rapid analysis of layers of thickness up to 120 mu m, has s ignificant potential in studies of the corrosion products and for the resto ration and conservation of ancient bronzes. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.