Centuries ago, the discovery of two elements led to new — but unstable — yellow pigments. Today, scientists are deploying particle accelerators to save artwork in these shades.
This article appeared in the June 2021 issue ofIf not for some mysterious Siberian lead or a contaminated vial of medicine, Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers might not exist, and the figure in Edvard Munch’s The Scream would have looked downright calm.
After boiling the ore in a solution of potassium carbonate, Vauquelin found that a solid compound formed in a yellow-colored acid. The solid was lead carbonate — confirming that the red lead ore did in fact contain lead. But what about the yellow liquid? In all of his tests, the properties of the ore hadn’t matched any other known element. Thus, Vauquelin reasoned, the yellow solution must contain a brand-new element.
Meanwhile, in the autumn of 1817, as artists began brushing Chrome Yellow onto their canvases, the apothecaries of Hildesheim were realizing they had a problem. When they tested the purity of their supply of zinc carbonate, instead of forming a white powder as expected, it turned bright yellow. Cadmium Yellow, it seemed, was the perfect solution to the problem. It was intense, bright, and praised by pigment manufacturers as a color “which may be used with perfect certainty.”
Because degraded pigment is often located in a very small section of a painting, scientists need a narrow beam of X-rays to focus on it. To do this, scientists use X-rays produced by synchrotrons, a type of circular particle accelerator.
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