Quantitative calibration of Neutron Resonance Transmission Imaging in binary copper – tin and ternary copper – tin– lead solution

Historical metallurgy and in particular bronze and other copper alloy metallurgy represents a research topic of strong importance in the study of the artistic and technological evolution of different civilizations. The current proposal represents a further step into the calibration of copper alloys in the frame of the CHNet_BRONZE project. It is part of a group of three proposals, aiming at performing a basic calibration study starting from reference samples of known elemental, phase and microstructural composition. We intend to analyse through NRTI cast ingots made of binary and ternary alloys containing Cu-Sn and Cu-Sn-Pb respectively, within compositional range derived from elemental analysis of historical bronze artefacts from Ancient Greece to Renaissance time.
We expect to be able to improve the quantitative analysis of the NRTI method for the Cu-Sn alloys, while a tentative for ternary Cu-Sb-Pb will be performed to determine if lead signal can be detected for solid samples with the highest lead content.

历史冶金学，尤其是青铜及其他铜合金冶金领域，乃是探究不同文明艺术与技术演进进程中的关键研究课题。本项研究乃是CHNet_BRONZE项目框架下铜合金校准工作的进一步延伸，隶属于三项联合研究计划之一，旨在以已知元素组成、物相及微观结构的标准样品为基础，开展铜合金的基础校准研究。本次研究计划通过NRTI技术，对分别由铜锡（Cu-Sn）二元合金与铜锡铅（Cu-Sn-Pb）三元合金铸成的铸锭进行分析，这些合金的成分范围均取自对古希腊至文艺复兴时期历史青铜文物的元素分析结果。本研究期望能够优化NRTI方法针对铜锡合金的定量分析性能；同时将开展针对铜锑铅（Cu-Sb-Pb）三元合金的探索性测试，以验证对于高铅含量固态样品，能否检测到铅信号。