Contemporary artists' spinel pigments: Non-invasive characterization by means of electronic spectroscopy

The identification of artistic materials represents a fundamental step in supporting the conservation of cultural heritage objects. The importance of their appropriate characterization is particularly relevant in modern-contemporary art, since they could be affected by the occurrence of rapid changes in chemical formulation over time. This paper focuses on an investigation of a series of contemporary blue-green commercial acrylic paints constituted of spinel pigments, using non-invasive spectroscopic techniques. The spectroscopic and color measurements obtained make it possible to characterize the acrylic paints under investigation and to compare the results obtained with those reported in the literature and in spectral databases. To be more precise, the proposed UV-vis-NIR reflectance spectroscopic technique was sensitive enough to characterize the acrylic paints according to their d-d ligand field and the charge transfer (CT) electronic transitions involved in the spinel structures. In addition, an overview of this class of inorganic pigments is also given.