Towards Understanding 16th-Century Metallurgy and Electrochemistry: The Case of Inca Artifacts

Abstract

Artifacts from the Peruvian Moche culture are examples of highly sophisticated metallurgy. Some of these artifacts have deteriorated through exposure to the local atmosphere and, in many cases, burial in the earth. Much effort has been invested by the Peruvian scientific organizations and heritage conservation institutions to understand the deterioration process and to ultimately protect these objects from further exposure and corrosion. In my talk, I will cover two aspects of the research on gold-coated copper artifacts. The first one will describe a sophisticated electrochemical process that the Moche used to coat Cu substrates. The second part of my talk will describe the results of studies of the diffusion processes that, over hundreds of years, led to the intermixing of the base metal (copper) and the gold/silver coatings and caused the diffusion of copper through the overlayer and eventual oxidation. Surface and interface analyses show how the preferential diffusion of copper through the gold coating is primarily responsible for the deterioration of the artifacts. The diffusion process that occurs at room temperature is seldom studied. In my talk, I will present the results o

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