Speaker
Cassandra Major
(North Georgia College and State University)
Description
X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy is a rapid, noninvasive technique for both detecting and identifying chemical elements within a given sample. At North Georgia College and State University, a sealed tube x-ray source and slightly focusing polycapillary optic are used in nondestructive XRF analysis of oil paint pigments. Oil paints contain both organic and inorganic matter, and the inorganic ingredients such as titanium, vanadium, iron, zinc, and other elements are easily detected by XRF, which can be used to uniquely differentiate between various paint pigments. To calibrate the XRF system for paint color identification, six different colors of oil paint were fluoresced and identified based off of their characteristic spectra. By scanning the paint sample in two dimensions, the characteristic XRF spectra obtained were compiled to produce an XRF replica of the painting.
Co-author
Sarah Formica
(North Georgia College and State University)
