We present here a study of historic glass decay by means of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Transition metal cations incorporated in the glass as choromophores exhibit modifications of their oxidising state and chemical environment as the glass suffers a decay process. These modifications can be monitored by measuring X-ray absorption near edge structure, XANES, and extended X-ray absorption fine structure, EXAFS, spectra at the selected atomic species. We apply the technique here to glasses from different periods ranging from 1st century BC to 18th century, demonstrating that XAS provides an advanced tool for qualitative analysis of glass decay. In particular we have found that it is possible to establish a relationship between the oxidation state of Fe and Cu cations with the decay suffered by the glass. In contrast, our results indicate that the Mn oxidizing state is not directly involved in the glass decay of the studied samples.

The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas are acknowledged for the financial support. This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the projects FIS-2008-06249, S2009-MAT-1629 (Geo-materials Program) and MAT2011-27573-C04-04, and by the Comunidad de Madrid NANOBIOMAGNET project and by the Aragón DGA NETOSHIMA grant. NC acknowledges the financial support of the FSE-MEC Ramón y Cajal program ref. RYC-2007-01715. MA and AS acknowledge the UCM Campus of International Excellence (PICATA Program) and the CSIC (JAE Program) respectively, for pre-doctoral fellowships.

Peer Reviewed