CTinHS Lecture 8 – 2023/24: 

Emilio Cano will deliver the 8th lecture of the 2nd edition of the “Current Topics in Heritage Science” on the topic: Electrochemical methods for the study of corrosion on metal heritage objects on Thursday, May 23rd, at 3.00 pm (CEST). 

Abstract

Although less known that other characterization techniques, electrochemical techniques can be of a very high value in the study of metallic heritage. In a unique way, corrosion rates can be directly measured, and protective properties of patinas and conservation treatments can be assessed. In this lecture, the fundamentals of the technique and the applications to cultural heritage will be presented, with special focus on the specific technique of Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) and its application for non-destructive in-situ studies. Examples of both laboratory and field applications will be presented to illustrate the possibilities offered by these techniques and their complementarity with other characterization methods

Date

May 23, 2024 at 3 pm (CEST)

• Why using electrochemical techniques
• What type of information we can get
• Specificities of their use in metallic heritage
• Instrumentation and experimental configuration
• Basics of interpretation

• Fundamentals of electrochemical techniques
• Developments for in-situ application in metallic heritage
• Examples of application of galvanostatic reduction
• Examples of application of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

Duration

45 minutes (30 minutes presentation + 15 minutes Q&A)

About the speaker

Dr. Emilio Cano is a Senior Scientist at the National Center for Metallurgical Research (CENIM) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), where he leads the research group ‘Atmospheric Corrosion and Conservation of Cultural Heritage’ (CAPAC), focusing on the study of corrosion and protection of metallic cultural heritage, atmospheric corrosion, and electrochemical techniques. He has participated in over 40 research national and European projects, having published more than 100 articles in indexed journals and over 120 contributions to conferences on these topics. He is Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation (IIC). He served as Assistant Coordinator of the Metals Working Group of ICOM-CC (2012-2020) and Coordinator of the TechnoHeritage Network for Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage (2015-2022). Currently, he is the co-coordinator of the CSIC Interdisciplinary Thematic Platform ‘Open Heritage: Research and Society’ and the National Coordinator of the Spanish Node of the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS).