μ-XRF analysis of glasses: a non-destructive utility for cultural heritage applications
Abstract
This paper presents a μ-XRF analytical approach for a non-destructive study of Cultural Heritage glass finds. This technique can be used for quantitative analysis of small volumes of solid samples, with a sensitivity that is superior to the electron microprobe but inferior to an ICP-MS system. An experimental set-up with natural and synthetic glass standards is proposed here for the quantitative analyses of major and trace elements on glass objects which cannot be sampled such as small archaeological or historical artefacts from Cultural Heritage. The described method, performed by means of the commercial μ-XRF Eagle III-XPL, was applied to Islamic glass specimens of Sasanian production (III–VII century A.D.) previously analyzed by