Physics Laboratory for the Environment and Cultural Heritage

Students will be introduced to Applied Physics methodological approaches aiming at the study of air quality issues (with a special focus on particulate matter and its properties) and to the diagnostics of cultural heritage artifact. The student will be asked to choose either the environmental or the cultural heritage section of the laboratory. State-of-the -art experimental methodologies to study both atmospheric and environmental physics phenomena and to investigate the Cultural Heritage materials and techniques are used by students in the laboratory. In addition, students are introduced to data reduction, analysis and interpretation.

As for the environmental physics laboratory, at the end of the course, students: 1.will gain basic knowledge on physical-chemical properties of atmospheric particulate matter and the ability of treating this item in the air quality context; 2. will be able to perform particulate matter collection on filters and to describe size-segregated sampling based on inertial impaction theory; 3. will be able to describe electronic chains to perform alfa and ED-XRF spectrometry; 4. will use specific software to perform spectral deconvolution; 5. will perform qualitative and quantitative XRF analysis on thin samples; 6. will perform on-line alpha spectrometry to detect short-lived Radon decay products. Students will be able to analyze collected spectra and relate results to atmospheric dispersion conditions; 7. will realize a range-to-energy curve using an alpha spectrometer; 8. will perform off-line alpha spectrometry to detect long-lived Radon decay products in atmospheric aerosol samples. Students will be able to analyze results to retrieve particles residence time.

As for the Cultural Heritage material laboratory, at the end of the course, students: 1. will be able to describe electronic chains to perform ED-XRF spectrometry; 2. will use specific software to perform spectral deconvolution; 3. will perform qualitative XRF analysis on investigated samples; 4. will perform quantitative XRF analysis on thick metal alloys; 5. will be able to use and integrate data obtained through reflectance spectrometry with data from ED-XRF spectrometry; 6. will gain knowledge of the main detectors and setups used for multiband imaging techniques; 7. will know how to process, analyze, and correctly manage imaging data for use in the study and preservation of objects of historical and artistic interest; 8. will understand the basics of computational imaging for morphological and volumetric analysis using 2½D and 3D models.