Investigating counterfeiting of an artwork by XRF, SEM-EDS, FTIR and synchrotron radiation induced MA-XRF at LNLS-BRAZIL.

In this work, a painting suspected of counterfeiting was analyzed using the synchrotron-based scanning macro X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF) technique. The canvas has erasures including a signature erasure; however, some visible numbers indicate that the artwork may be from the 17th century. Through the studies' elemental maps, Cl-K and Ca-K were observed, which allowed us to reconstruct the signature present in the painting.

Analysis of silver coins from colonial Brazil by hand held XRF and micro-XRF.

In this work, 960 réis coins from the period when Brazil was a colony of Portugal were analyzed using the x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry. The history of these coins, dated between the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 19th century, had a great influence on the immigration of the Portuguese Prince Regent D. João to Brazil, who arrived in 1808.

Analysis of 19th century ceramic fragments excavated from Pirenópolis (Goiás, Brazil) using FT-IR, Raman, XRF and SEM.

This study used Raman, FT-IR and XRF spectroscopy and SEM to analyze ceramic fragments dating from the 19th century, excavated from an old farm in the municipality of Pirenópolis, Goiás, Brazil. The results show that the samples were produced in an open oven at a firing temperature below 500°C, using raw materials including kaolinite, hematite, magnetite, quartz, microcline, albite, anhydrite, calcite, illite, orthoclase and MnO. Although the analyses showed similarities in the manufacturing process and the presence of many minerals was common in all samples, multivariate statistical methods (PCA) allowed a more detailed assessment of similarities and differences in the mineral composition of the samples.

Analysis of clay smoking pipes from archeological sites in the region of the Guanabara Bay (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) by FT-IR.

In this study, twenty samples of clay smoking pipes excavated in an 18km(2) area between the Macacu and Caceribu rivers, in the municipality of Itaboraí, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil were analyzed by FT-IR technique. The samples, excavated in different archeological sites of the region, are dated between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries and are part of the material culture left by Africans and African descendants that lived in the complex. FT-IR analyses and complementary SEM-EDS studies showed that the clay paste used in the manufacture of smoking pipes, mostly handcrafted, is composed of quartz, feldspar, phyllosilicates and iron oxides.

Analysis of a Brazilian baroque sculpture using Raman spectroscopy and FT-IR.

In this study, samples were taken from the sculpture of Our Lady of Sorrows and analyzed by Raman spectroscopy and FT-IR. This sculpture has been dated to the early eighteenth century. Samples were also examined using optical microscopy and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS).