Further synchrotron X-ray spectromicroscopic studies on Van Gogh's paintings

A research team led by Professor K. Janssens (Antwerp University, Belgium) has published several interesting results from their series of analytical work on Van Gogh's paintings. They were able to give more detailed insights on the chemical forms of cadmium yellow and chromium yellow, as well as the role of lead in the pigment. For more information, see the following 3 papers, "Combined use of Synchrotron Radiation Based Micro-X-ray Fluorescence, Micro-X-ray Diffraction, Micro-X-ray Absorption Near-Edge, and Micro-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopies for Revealing an Alternative Degradation Pathway of the Pigment Cadmium Yellow in a Painting by Van Gogh", G. Van der Snickt et al., Anal. Chem., Article ASAP, Publication Date (Web): 30 Aug 2012., "The Degradation Process of Lead Chromate in paintings by Vincent van Gogh studied by means of Spectromicroscopic methods. Part III: Synthesis, characterization and detection of different crystal forms of the chrome yellow pigment", L. Monico et al., Anal. Chem., Just Accepted Manuscript. Publication Date (Web): 10 Oct 2012, and "The Degradation Process of Lead Chromate in paintings by Vincent van Gogh studied by means of Spectromicroscopic methods. Part IV: Artificial ageing of model samples of co-precipitates of lead chromate and lead sulfate", L. Monico et al., Anal. Chem., Just Accepted Manuscript. Publication Date (Web): 10 Oct 2012.