TY - JOUR A1 - Dariz, P. A1 - Schmid, Thomas T1 - Phase composition and burning history of high-fired medieval gypsum mortars studied by Raman microspectroscopy N2 - The use of high-fired gypsum as binder for masonry and joint mortars or stuccowork in Central Europe in the Early and High Middle Ages was a regional specific as it depended on local gypsum deposits. The calcination technology possible at the time resulted in an assemblage of calcium sulphate phases dehydrated to different degrees and partly thermally damaged accessory minerals of the raw gypsum. Not hydrated clusters of firing products preserved in the binder matrix are a typical feature of such mortars. A novel Raman microspectroscopic approach, providing access to the burning history of individual anhydrite grains, was applied to samples from medieval South Tyrolean stucco decorations and sculptures. Beyond that, Raman microspectroscopy was employed for tracing and visualising pyrometamorphic reactions in natural impurities of the kiln run. In the discussed examples mineral thermometry indicates process temperatures above 800°C: the breakdown of magnesium-rich chlorite led to the formation of forsterite Mg2SiO4, while the thermal decomposition of dolomite CaMg(CO3)2 to periclase MgO and lime CaO yielded – after hydration and carbonation – magnesite MgCO3, CaCO3 polymorphs and magnesian calcite. Hydration of periclase in the mixed gypsum paste containing sulphate ions also resulted in magnesium sulphate hydrates, here identified in the form of hexahydrite MgSO4·6H2O. Lower burning temperatures left the accessory minerals in their pristine form, but can be traced by measuring the spectra of individual anhydrite crystals in grains of firing products and evaluating Raman band widths. Throughout the present study, calcination temperatures ranging from approx. 600°C to 900°C were determined. KW - High-fired gypsum mortar KW - Anhydrite KW - Dolomite KW - Forsterite KW - Raman microspectroscopy PY - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchar.2019.03.013 VL - 151 SP - 292 EP - 301 PB - Elsevier Inc. AN - OPUS4-48102 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmid, Thomas A1 - Jungnickel, Robert A1 - Dariz, P. T1 - Insights into the CaSO4–H2O System: A Raman-Spectroscopic Study N2 - Even though being the subject of natural scientific research for many decades, the system CaSO4–H2O, consisting of the five crystalline phases gypsum, bassanite, and the anhydrites III, II, and I, has left many open questions for research. Raman spectroscopy was used because of its structural sensitivity and in situ measurement capability to obtain further insight by studying phase transitions in both ex situ and in situ experiments. The findings include significant contributions to the completeness and understanding of Raman spectroscopic data of the system. The dehydration path gypsum–bassanite–anhydrite III was shown to have strong parallels to a physical drying process, which depends on many parameters beyond the burning temperature. Raman band width determination was demonstrated to enable the quantitative discrimination of α-bassanite and β-bassanite as well as the postulated three sub-forms of anhydrite II (AII), which are all based on differences in crystallinity. In the latter case, the observed continuous structural variations over increasing burning temperatures were elucidated as a combination of decreasing surface areas and healing of crystal lattice defects. We propose an only two-fold sub-division of AII into reactive “disordered AII” and much less reactive “crystalline AII” with a transition temperature of 650°C ± 50 K. KW - Gypsum KW - Bassanite KW - Hemihydrate KW - Anhydrite KW - Raman spectroscopy PY - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-506701 SN - 2075-163X VL - 10 IS - 2 SP - 115, 35 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-50670 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -