earticle

영어

Scientific investigation of cultural heritage can provide important information to understand the context of the object. To know the characteristics of the material is also an essential part of objects management and conservation. However, the identification and characterization of organic dyes used in archaeological and historical textiles are often limited by the restrictions in sampling. To cope with the difficulties, applications of high-performance techniques of surface analysis, such as Time of Flight-Secondary Ion Mass Spectra (TOF-SIMS) could be considered as a non or micro-destructive option. This study aims to examine the applicability of TOF-SIMS analysis to the detection of organic dyes from historical textiles. A group of silk fabrics dyed with vegetable dyes were artificially photo-aged to different degrees and analyzed with TOF-SIMS. Molecular and fragment ions from indigo were successfully detected from the aged samples; however, only some fragment ions were observed from gardenia and safflower dyed fabrics. Further studies with actual historical samples with extended examination scope would be necessary to assess the validity of this technique.