Multi-modal tomography to assess dechlorination treatments of iron-based archaeological artifacts

Abstract

Chloride ions are an important actor in the corrosion of iron-based archaeological artifact. To stop this degradation, excavated objects are subjected to dechlorination treatment. However, there is no guarantee that this will remove all chloride from the object, as some can be found deep inside the object. To assess the ability of dechlorination treatment to remove chloride, we propose to use both neutron and X-ray tomography. Indeed, these tomographic techniques have sensitivities to different elements and are thus complementary. Neutron tomography in particular is highly sensitive to the presence of chloride. This study demonstrate that this methodology allows to detect local and global changes caused by the dechlorination treatment, an useful tool to assess the effectiveness of a treatment and potentially improve it.