Themed collection Molecular Analysis for Art, Archaeometry and Conservation

This Editorial introduces the web collection on Molecular Analysis for Art, Archaeometry and Conservation, guest edited by Francesca Casadio and Richard Van Duyne.

The analysis of clays within historic earth buildings is commonly achieved through X-ray diffraction, which is reliant upon extraction. Portable near infrared spectroscopy allows in situ differentiation between clays.

For the first time we report the band edge and trap state luminescence decay kinetics of cadmium pigments. The measured lifetimes suggest that carrier recombination is highly influenced by non-radiative decay paths such as electron trapping. Our findings highlight how luminescence measurements are useful in the conservation science field.

A new analytical method was developed to non-destructively determine pH and degree of polymerisation (DP) of cellulose in fibres in 19^th–20^th century painting canvases, and to identify the fibre type: cotton, linen, hemp, ramie or jute.

A multi-analytical approach has been applied to characterize Khirbet Kerak Ware, a distinctive pottery production of Early Bronze III Levant.

New insights into copal degradation mechanisms are introduced and relevant analytical strategies for resinous substances through non-destructive approaches by FT-Raman and ATR-IR are presented.

Cadmium yellow photo-degradation products are imaged in thin sections from Matisse's Le Bonheur de vivre allowing for degradation mechanism elucidation.

Silver colloidal pastes, characterized by SEM, allowed the first extractionless SERS identification of two dyes simultaneously on historical Fortuny textiles.

A new approach was developed as a probe for alteration of Asian lacquer using SEM, microtopography and SR micro-FTIR.

A quantitative method based on polarized Raman spectroscopy was developed to assess the degree of collagen degradation in historical parchments.

Fast 2D-XRF scanning helps to differentiate between the minerals from the production process and the sediments from the archaeological site.

New insights into the chemical structure of smalt pigment, before and after degradation, from the application of synchrotron micro-infrared spectroscopy and micro-Raman directly on smalt particles within paint cross-sections.

This work provides the first identification of fish glue from a few micrograms of a 17^th century polychromy sample using an adapted proteomics approach.

Richly decorated enamelled glass objects and fragments of different provenance and epoch (1^st c.–14^th c.) have been analysed using mobile and fixed Raman instruments. The comparison with data existing in literature, allowed to discuss the technology of this class of precious artefacts and the potential of the mobile Raman analysis.

Development of high sensitivity standoff chemical imaging to map artist's selective use of binding media across entire painting.

Advanced iron gall ink corrosion (image courtesy Nationaal Archief) and a terahertz spectrum of model iron gall ink.

Peptide mass fingerprinting provides species level identification of soft tissue materials from cultural heritage.

SERS combined with simple statistical techniques and library search methods enables fast and reliable identification of dyes from different samples.

The method of Thermally assisted Hydrolysis and Methylation (THM) was applied to the analysis of plant gums that can be found in artistic and archaeological objects.

Combining reflectance spectroscopy with an historic literature survey yields a contextualized study of green pigments used in medieval French illuminations.

DART-TOF-MS with in situ derivatisation provides rapid confirmation of the presence of blood in a museum object.

Electrochemical SERS experiments of the insoluble pigment quinacridone quinone dispersed in ionic liquids (BMIMCl and TBAN) are reported.

Development of a SERS-based approach for the detection of various yellow dyestuffs, lake pigments, and oil paints.

The immuno-SERRS procedure combines the selective localization of ovalbumin with the simultaneous Raman mapping of different paint components.

In order to fully characterize the zinc white artists' semiconductor pigment (ZnO), much used since the mid-nineteenth century, three historical samples were studied using a combination of synchrotron and macroscopic photoluminescence spectroscopy and imaging to allow their differentiation.