A map is worth a thousand pictures: Using FTIR-imaging to analyze petrographic thin sections of historical and experimental mortar

Author(s): Anthony J. Baragona, Marta Anghelone, Johannes Weber
Paper category: Proceedings
Book title: Proceedings of the 5th Historic Mortars Conference
Editor(s): José Ignacio Álvarez, José María Fernández, Íńigo Navarro, Adrián Durán, Rafael Sirera
ISBN: 978-2-35158-221-3
e-ISBN: 978-2-35158-222-0
Publisher: RILEM Publications SARL
Publication year: 2019
Pages: 482-494
Total Pages: 13
Language : English

Abstract: This contribution describes analyzing polished petrographic thin sections of mortar by
means of a succession of image-based analytical techniques, starting with optical
microscopy, moving to scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive X-ray
spectroscopy and culminating with FTIR imaging combined with image analysis software.
The use of thin sections preserves the most important features of a mortar: the spatial
relationships and context between a mortar’s micro-features, which are imperative to
understanding the materials and techniques employed by an artisan in producing the
mortar, as well as alteration phenomena that have taken place since.
This approach is illustrated here by its application to a number of mortars from Roman
antiquity as well as experimental mortars, all of which consist of an air-lime binder mixed
with a reactive aggregate - either ceramic or volcanic pozzolan. Long-term chemical changes
make direct correlation between experimental and historical mortars a challenge, but the
technique did produce both qualitative and quantifiable results that otherwise could not
have been achieved without the destruction of the sample.

Online publication : 2019
Publication type : full_text
Public price (Euros) : 0.00