# Degradation Products Assessment of the Wooden Painted Surfaces from a XVIIth Heritage Monastery
## 2 Materials and Methods
### Characterization Methods  
Optical microscopy (OM) images were obtained with a Novex Microscope BBS trinocular microscope (EUROMEX Microsopen, Arnhem, The Netherlands) (magnifications: 40\(\times\), 100\(\times\), 400\(\times\), 1000\(\times\)). The microscope is equipped with a digital video camera (EUROMEX-HOLLAND), through the microscope software (ZenPro), allowed the acquisition of data in real time. The images were processed using the ImageJ 1.50 software (free soft). Additionally, the optical microscopy was recorded by a ZEISS Primo Star optical microscope working at 4\(\times\) and 100\(\times\) magnifications. The equipment is equipped with a digital video camera (Axiocam 105) that allows the acquisition of data in real time. For the cross-section investigations, the damaged paint fragments, with sizes between 0.5 and 1 mm were embedded in polyester resin, dried at room temperature, and then microtomed with a tungsten knife. After the resin cured, the samples were dry polished using Micromesh(tm) polishing cloths. For stereomicroscopy, a Stereo trinocular stereomicroscope (EUROMEX Microsopen B.V., BD Arnhem, Holland), model 1903, was used (magnification degrees of 7-45\(\times\)). For Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) a SU-70 (Hitachi, Japan) microscope was used with a magnification range: 30\(\times\)-800.000\(\times\). This microscope has an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) device for a qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis. The wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) was carried out on a Rigaku ZSX Primus II spectrometer (Rigaku, The Woodlands, TX, USA) equipped with an X-ray tube with Rh anode, 4.0 kW power, with front Be window (30 \(\upmu\)m thickness). The measurements were carried out under vacuum atmosphere on pressed pellets. FTIR spectra (ATR-FTIR) were recorded on paint cross-sections using a Vertex 80 spectrometer (Bruker Optik GMBH, Ettlingen, Germany) in the range 4000-400 cm\({}^{-1}\), 32 scans, resolution 4 cm\({}^{-1}\), with the attenuated total reflectance mode, ATR, equipped with a germanium crystal. Data were processed and interpreted using Bruker Opus 7.5 software. Additionally, the spectra were interpreted by comparison with references in the material collection of the Database of ATR-FT-IR spectra of various materials. Raman spectra have been measured with a Raman wavelength portable analyzer (Rigaku, The Woodlands, TX, USA) equipped with a 785 and 1064 nm stabilized laser, providing high sensitivity. A resolution of 4 cm\({}^{-1}\) with a laser power of 252 mW was used for measurements. The data were collected and processed with the Opus 7.0 software (Bruker Optics GmbH, Ettlingen, Germany). For the chromatic parameters' measurements, a CR-410 colorimeter (Konica Minolta, Tokyo, Japan) was used. By applying the CIELAB standard [36; 37], the following parameters were measured:  
L*-brightness (L* = 0 (black) to 100 (white);  
a*-red/green variation (a*-red/green coordinate, with + a* meaning red and-a* meaning, green),  
b*-yellow/blue variation (b*-yellow/blue coordinate, with + b* meaning yellow and-b* meaning blue). For gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, a GC/MS Triple Quad Agilent chromatograph has been used with the following parameters; DB-WAX column (L = 30 m, D = 250 \(\upmu\)m, d = 0.25 \(\upmu\)m); Oven Program: 50 \({}^{\circ}\)C for 5 min, 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C/min at 150 \({}^{\circ}\)C, 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C/min at 320 \({}^{\circ}\)C; carrier gas: He, Flow = 1 mL/min; QQQ Collision Cell: Quench Flow Gas (He) = 2.2 mL/min; Collision Flow Gas (N2) = 1.5 mL/min; Source: EI, Electron Energy: 70 eV, Temperature: 230 \({}^{\circ}\)C, auxiliary temperature: 280 \({}^{\circ}\)C.  
The samples collected from the paintings was prepared in the following way: 100 mL of dichloromethane and 100 mL of 2 M KOH solution were mixed with the sample (<0.1 mg).