Abstract
Ferrogallic inks were used for at least two millennia before they became obsolete in the 20th century. The chemistry of such inks is, however, still largely unclear. Today it is of particular interest for the conservation of old manuscripts. 57Fe Mössbauer spectra of the ink on historical documents showed the presence of Fe(II) oxalate and of Fe(III) sites presumably representing iron oxihydroxides. To obtain more information on the behaviour of ink on paper we have performed Mössbauer studies at 300 and 4.2 K on iron gall inks prepared from FeSO4⋅7H2O and tannin. These inks were either written on paper or isolated as a precipitate by centrifugation. In the dried precipitate there is still a strong contribution of the FeSO4⋅7H2O which is absent in the same ink written on paper, for which a broad ferrous component with a quadrupole splitting (QS) of about 2.5 mm/s was found. The dominant Fe(III) site present in all inks on paper with QS ≈ 0.82 mm/s is not Fe(III) gallate and different from the precipitates. We propose that nanoparticulate oxidic clusters or molecular composites covered by a shell of polymerized oxidation products of the phenols are formed on the paper.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Levey, M.: Chimia 9, 27 (1964)
Banik, G., Weber, H. (eds.): Tintenfraßschäden Und Ihre Behandlung. Stuttgart, Kohlhammer (2005)
Kolar, J., Strlič, M. (eds.): Iron gall inks: On manufacture, characterization, degradation and stabilization. National and University Library, Ljubljana (2006)
Mansi, M., Carvalho, M.L.: Spectrochim. Acta B 64, 482 (2009)
Hinrichsen, F.W.: Die Untersuchung von Gallustinten, Stuttgart, Enke (1909)
Zetzsche, F., Vieli, G., Lilljequist, G., Loosi, A.: Ann. Chem. 435, 233 (1924)
Krekel, C.: Chemische Untersuchungen an Eisengallustinten und Anwendung der Ergebnisse bei der Begutachtung einer mittelalterlichen Handschrift. Diploma thesis, Göttingen (1991)
Wunderlich, C.H., Weber, R., Bergerhoff, G.: Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem. 598 (/599), 371 (1991)
Lee, A.S., Mahon, P.J., Creagh, D.C.: Vibr. Spectr. 41, 170 (2006)
Lee, A., Otieno-Alego, V., Creagh, D.C.: J. Raman Spectr. 39, 1079 (2008)
Aceto, M., Agostino, A., Boccaleri, E., Garlanda, A.C.: X-Ray Spectrom. 37, 286 (2008)
Bicchieri, M., Monti, M., Piantanida, G., Sodo, A.: Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 405, 2713 (2013)
Danon, J., Darbour, M., Flieder, F., Genand-Riondet, N., Imbert, P., Jehanno, G., Roussel, Y.: Proceedings of the International Conference on the Applications of the Mössbauer Effect 1981 Jaipur, India. Proceedings of the Indian National Science Academy: Physical Sciences, Special Volume 1982, p. 841
Wagner, B., Bulska, E., Stahl, B., Heck, M.H., Ortner, H.M.: Anal. Chim. Acta 527, 195 (2004)
Gust, J., Suwalski, J.: Corrosion 50, 355 (1994)
Iglesias, J., García de Saldaña, E., Jaén, J.A.: Hyperfine Interact. 134, 109 (2001)
Jaén, J.A., García de Saldaña, E., Hernández, C.: Hyperfine Interact. 122, 139 (1999)
Jaén, J.A., González, L., Vargas, A., Olave, G.: Hyperfine Interact. 148/149, 227 (2003)
Jaén, J.A., Araúz, E.Y., Iglesias, J., Delgado, Y.: Hyperfine Interact. 148/149, 199 (2003)
Jaén, J.A., Navarro, C.: Hyperfine Interact. 192, 61 (2009)
Jaén, J.A., De Obaldía, J., Rodríguez, M.V.: Hyperfine Interact. 202, 25 (2011)
Burgaud, C., Rouchon, V., Refait, P., Watteaux, A.: Appl. Phys. A 92, 257 (2008)
Neevel, J.G.: Restaurator 16, 143 (1995)
Hider, R.C., Mohd-Nor, A.R., Silver, J., Morrison, J.E.G., Rees, L.V.C., Dalton, J.C.S.: Transactions 609 (1981)
Olowe, A.A., Genin, J.M.R.: Hyperfine Interact. 68, 253 (1991)
Powell, H.K.J., Taylor, M.C.: Austr. J. Chem. 35, 739 (1982)
Wagner, F.E., Lerf, A.: Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem. 641, 2384 (2015)
Funk, F., Long, G.J., Hautot, D., Büchi, R., Christl, I., Weidler, P.G.: Hyperfine Interact. 136, 73 (2001)
Eusterhues, K., Wagner, F.E., Häusler, W., Hanzlik, M., Knicker, H., Totsche, K.U., Kögel-Knabner, I., Schwertmann, U.: Environ. Sci. Techn. 42, 7891 (2008)
Mikutta, C., Mikutta, R., Bonneville, S., Wagner, F.E., Voegelin, A., Christl, I., Kretzschmar, R.: Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 72, 1111 (2008)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Proceedings of the International Conference on the Applications of the Mössbauer Effect (ICAME 2015), Hamburg, Germany, 13–18 September 2015.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lerf, A., Wagner, F.E. Model compounds of iron gall inks – a Mössbauer study. Hyperfine Interact 237, 36 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-016-1280-y
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-016-1280-y