Protection of Urban Art Painting: A Laboratory Study

Urban art is a form of artistic visual expression and communication that is created in the street and generally in the public dimension of urban spaces. Often these kinds of artworks are in outdoor environments, and they usually suffer from atmospheric weathering and anthropic vandalism. Recently, several strategies have been used to limit or remove the effects of such vandalism. Currently, the use of quartz paints is growing among artists; such paints after setting are more porous and rough on the surface with respect to regular paints. The aim of the study is to assess the performance of anti-graffiti coatings on quartz artworks paints. Two anti-graffiti products were chosen, and their behaviors were assessed in the laboratory by means of contact angle measurement, water capillary test, colorimetric analysis, and optical and electron microscopy. Results showed good water repellence efficacy of the tested products, demonstrating that they are suitable for the protection of urban art, but at least two applications on the surface are needed to achieve good performance.

Color ruler to confirm spectrophotometer results for nitro compound content in acidic wastewater from TNT processes

This study aimed to find an additional analytical reference procedure to verify the accuracy of single beam Spectrophotometer results that used to determine the concentration of nitro compound pollutants such as TNT, DNT, and MNT (Tri Nitro Toluene, Di Nitro toluene, and Mono Nitro Toluene respectively) in treated acidic wastewater generated from TNT manufacturing. This procedure was tested and confirmed to be a reference for a single-beam spectrophotometer. In this study 10 samples with known concentrations were taken and prepared for colorimetric analysis, the concentrations gradient from 10mg/L up to 60mg/L to make a ruler with gradient color, this ruler was suitable for high concentration samples but to specify the low concentration samples the procedure depended on adding a known concentration to the unknown concentration sample then this added concentration transferred the samples from unspecified color to specified color on the ruler consisted by known concentration mentioned above, the concentration of unknown concentration samples were specified by taking the concentration corresponding to the ruler color a subtracting the value of added concentration and the value of the remains was sample concentration. This study proved the reliability of this procedure to confirm single-beam spectrophotometer results, determining low concentration value of unknown concentration sample of TNT acidic wastewater, and then it can be used as a substituent of spectrophotometer in the event of malfunctions.

The Development of Digital Image Colorimetric Quantitative Analysis of Multi-Explosives Using Polymer Gel Sensors

Polymer gel sensors on 96-well plates were successfully used to detect four different multi-explosives, including 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT), nitrite, and perchlorate. The products of reactions between the explosives and the polymer gel sensors were digitally captured, and the images were analyzed by a developed Red–Green–Blue (RGB) analyzer program on a notebook computer. RGB color analysis provided the basic color data of the reaction products for the quantification of the explosives. The results provided good linear range, sensitivity, limit of detection, limit of quantitation, specificity, interference tolerance, and recovery. The method demonstrated great potential to detect explosives by colorimetric analysis of digital images of samples on 96-well plates. It is possible to apply the proposed method for quantitative on-site field screening of multi-explosives.