Discovering “The Italian Flag” by Fernando Melani (1907–1985)

Carlesi, Serena; Bartolozzi, Giovanni; Cucci, Costanza; Marchiafava, Veronica; Picollo, Marcello; Nasa, Jacopo La; Girolamo, Francesca Di; Dilillo, Marialaura; Modugno, Francesca; Degano, Ilaria; Colombini, Maria Perla; Legnaioli, Stefano; Lorenzetti, Giulia; Palleschi, Vincenzo

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2016.05.027

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Whenever sampling has been permitted, analytical pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) [1,[29][30][31][32] has been successfully applied. Direct temperature mass spectrometry (DTMS) [25,33,34] and laser desorption mass spectrometry (LDMS) [34,35] have also been used, but have not yielded positive identification when isomers are present, which is often the case when organic pigments are concerned.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

HPLC-DAD and HPLC-ESI-Q-ToF characterisation of early 20th century lake and organic pigments from Lefranc archives

et al. 2017

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The characterisation of atelier materials and of the historical commercial formulation of paint materials has recently gained new interest in the field of conservation science applied to modern and contemporary art, since modern paint materials are subjected to peculiar and often unpredictable degradation and fading processes. Assessing the composition of the original materials purchased by artists can guide not only their identification in works of art, but also their restoration and conservation. Advances in characterisation methods and models for data interpretation are particularly important in studying organic coloring materials in the transition period corresponding to the late 19th-early 20th century, when many such variants or combinations were hypothetically possible in their formulations. There is thus a need for reliable databases of materials introduced in that period and for gaining chemical knowledge at a molecular level related to modern organic pigments, by state-of-the-art protocols. This paper reports on the results of a study on 44 samples of historical colorants in powder and paint tubes, containing both lake pigments and synthetic organic pigments dating from 1890 to 1926. The samples were collected at the Lefranc Archive in Le Mans (France) as a part of Project Futurahma "From Futurism to Classicism (1910Classicism ( -1922. Research, Art History and Material Analysis", (FIRB2012, Italian Ministry of University and Research), and were investigated using an analytical approach based on chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques. The focus of the chemical analyses was to reveal the composition of the historical organic lake pigments including minor components, to discriminate between different recipes for the extraction of chromophore-containing molecules from the raw materials, and ultimately to distinguish between different formulations and recipes. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode array detector (DAD) or electrospray-Quadrupole-Time of Flight tandem mass spectrometry detector (ESI-Q-ToF) were chosen given their considerable capacity to identify such complex and widespread organic materials. Although the inorganic components of the pigments were not taken into account in this survey, the specific molecular profiles provided invaluable information on the extraction procedures or synthetic strategy followed by the different producers, at different times. For instance, the use of Kopp's purpurin and garancine was highlighted, and synthetic by-products were identified. The results provided evidence that the addition of synthetic organic pigments to paint mixtures started from 1910 onwards, but they also suggest that in the formulation of high quality (surfin) colorants, natural products were still preferred. Moreover, in one of the samples the use of murexide as the colouring material was confirmed. This paper presents the first systematic and comprehensive survey on organic lakes and pigments belonging to an historical archive, by both HPLC-DAD and HPLC-ES...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

HPLC-DAD and HPLC-ESI-Q-ToF characterisation of early 20th century lake and organic pigments from Lefranc archives

et al. 2017

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“…The chromatographic conditions were: 40 °C for 5 min, 10 °C/min to 310 °C for 20 min. The helium (purity 99.9995%) gas flow was set in constant flow mode at 1.2 mL/min [7][8][9][34][35][36].…”

Section: Multi-shot Pyrolysis-gas Chromatography/mass Spectrometrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To preserve the stability of synthetic polymeric materials, some of which were not intended to last longer than a few decades after their production, specific analytical tools are required for their identification, to investigate the degradation processes, and to assess the preservation state of specific objects. In this context, analytical pyrolysis is emerging as a fundamental tool for the analysis of polymers in heritage science [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10], also thanks to recent developments such as evolved gas analysis mass spectrometry (EGA-MS) and multi-shot pyrolysis coupled with chromatography and mass spectrometry (multi-shot Py-GC/MS). These techniques have only been applied in heritage studies in a few cases, but have shown a good potential in the investigation of synthetic paint binders [11][12][13][14], archaeological wood [15], and conservation materials such as wood consolidants [16], lacquers [17], and proteinaceous residues [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The chemical analysis of the foam constituting the object, which could be ambiguously classified both as an artwork and as the prototype of a piece of design furniture, took place before a conservation intervention performed by Triennale Design Museum of Milan in 2017 [31]. A preliminary ATR-FTIR analysis was also carried out [8,9,32]. Micro-samples of PU foam with different states of preservation were examined, in order to obtain a picture of the chemical composition and of the degradation processes of the PU, based on its thermal degradation behaviour.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A pyrolysis approach for characterizing and assessing degradation of polyurethane foam in cultural heritage objects

Nasa

Biale

Ferriani³

et al. 2018

Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis

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Specific analytical tools are needed to investigate the composition and degradation processes of the synthetic materials in the cultural heritage, and recent advancements in pyrolysis-based analytical techniques have great potential for the characterisation of synthetic polymers. We applied evolved gas analysis mass spectrometry (EGA-MS) and double shot pyrolysis coupled with chromatography and mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) to investigate polyurethane foam micro-samples from the Italian popart sculpture "Contenitoreumano n.1" (1968) by Ico Parisi (1916-1996) and Francesco Somaini (1926-2005. The chemical analysis aimed to assess the chemical composition and of the state of preservation of the PU foam by acquiring information on its thermal degradation behaviour and identifying the pyrolysis products produced at different temperatures. A preliminary ATR-FTIR analysis was also carried out. The multi-analytical approach enabled us to identify the isocyanate and polyol precursors as 2,6-toluenediisocyanate and polypropylene glycol, respectively. The plasticizers used in the production of the PU foam were also identified in the first shot of a double shot Py-GC/MS experiment. A comparison of a sample of better preserved foam with a sample of degraded foam from the surface of the object highlighted that the more degraded part of the PU foam featured an increase in the thermal degradation temperature of the soft-fragments of the PU network, related to crosslinking phenomena. Moreover, loss of plasticizers and formation of NH2 functional groups was observed in the degraded foam.

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“…These approaches go beyond identifying functional groups on the basis of vibrational bands and are also applicable in cases where the morphology or surface features prevent non-invasive analysis. Analytical pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography separation and the mass spectrometry identification of the pyrolysis products (Py-GC/MS) is one of the most powerful approaches for obtaining a complete picture of the composition of a polymeric material using a minimum amount of sample (10-100 µg) [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

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confidence: 99%

Plastics in Heritage Science: Analytical Pyrolysis Techniques Applied to Objects of Design

Nasa

Biale

Ferriani³

et al. 2020

Molecules

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The first synthetic polymers were introduced as constituents of everyday life, design objects, and artworks at the end of the 19th century. Since then, the history of design has been strictly connected with the 20th century evolution of plastic materials. Objects of design from the 20th century are today a precious part of the cultural heritage. They raise specific conservation issues due to the degradation processes affecting synthetic polymer-based plastics. Museums and collections dealing with the conservation of design objects and modern materials need to base their conservation strategies on compositional data that reveal the formulations of historical plastics and their decay processes. Specific and specifically optimized analytical tools are thus needed. We employed flash analytical pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) and evolved gas analysis coupled with mass spectrometry (EGA-MS) to characterize “historic polymeric materials” (HIPOMS) and heritage plastics at the molecular level with high chemical detail. This approach complements non-invasive spectroscopic diagnosis whenever it fails to obtain significant or complete information on the nature and the state of preservation of the materials under study. We determined the composition of several 20th century design objects (1954–1994) from the Triennale Design Museum of Milan (Triennale Milano - Museo del Design Italiano), which for different morphological, chemical, or physical reasons were unsuitable for characterization by non-invasive spectroscopy. EGA-MS proved capable for the study of the different fractions constituting heterogeneous micro-samples and for gaining an insight into their degradation processes from the contextual interpretation of thermal and mass-spectrometric data.

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Discovering “The Italian Flag” by Fernando Melani (1907–1985)

Cited by 18 publications

References 28 publications

HPLC-DAD and HPLC-ESI-Q-ToF characterisation of early 20th century lake and organic pigments from Lefranc archives

HPLC-DAD and HPLC-ESI-Q-ToF characterisation of early 20th century lake and organic pigments from Lefranc archives

A pyrolysis approach for characterizing and assessing degradation of polyurethane foam in cultural heritage objects

Plastics in Heritage Science: Analytical Pyrolysis Techniques Applied to Objects of Design

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