J. Phys. IV France 12 (2002) Pr6-393
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:20020248

Characterisation of iron archaeological analogues using micro diffraction under synchrotron radiation. Application to the study of long term corrosion behaviour of low alloy steels

P. Dillmann¹, D. Neff¹, F. Mazaudier², S. Hoerle², P. Chevallier^{1, 3} and G. Beranger<sup>4

1</sup>  Laboratoire Pierre Süe, CEA/CNRS, CEA/Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France
²  DEN/DPC/DSCCME/LECA, CEA/Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France
³  Laboratoire pour l'Utilisation du Rayonnement Électromagnétique (LURE), bâtiment 209D, Campus Universitaire Paris-Sud, 91898 Orsay cedex, France
⁴  Université de Technologie de Compiègne, Laboratoire Roberval, Centre de Recherche Royallieu, BP. 20529, 60205 Compiègne, France

Abstract
Last progresses in synchrotron radiation focusing allow the characterisation on microscopic samples. The use of X Ray micro diffraction ( XRD) in two corrosion studies (indoor atmospheric corrosion and in soil corrosion) concerning iron archaeological artefacts is presented. This analytical method permits to locate and identify very precisely the constitutive phases of the corrosion products. For the atmospheric corrosion study, semi quantitative data were presented to assess the proportion of the different identified phases in the rust layers. For the in soil corrosion study, the precise distribution of corrosion products formed on the nine analysed artefacts is given.

© EDP Sciences 2002