Investigation of Historical Egyptian Textile using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) - a case study

Harby Ezzeld Ahmed (1) , Yuan Liu (2) , Bruno Bousquet (3) , Matthieu Baudelet (2) , Martin Richardson (2)

1 TLI-CREOL - Townes Laser Institute, the College of Optics and Photonics
2 Departement of Conservation
3 LOMA - Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine

This paper evaluates the use of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) for the analysis of Egyptian historical textiles. The chemical information provided by LIBS, as well as the detrimental effects of laser-induced damages were studied as a function of laser energy and the number of laser pulses used for analysis. The main elements in the metal fibers were Cu, Au, Ag, Cr, Mn, Zn and Ca. The results obtained through LIBS were confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled to Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). The damage of the metal threads after LIBS application was monitored by SEM and Optical Microscopy. The textile samples used were obtained from the museum of the faculty of Applied Arts, Helwan University, Egypt.

Keywords: SEM-EDX; LIBS; Metal fiber; Historical; Textiles; Elementals

Domains: Analytical chemistry; Material chemistry

Harby Ezzeld Ahmed, Yuan Liu, Bruno Bousquet, Matthieu Baudelet, Martin Richardson. Investigation of Historical Egyptian Textile using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) - a case study. journal of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management, 2013, 8 (2). ⟨hal-00950494⟩