Congratulations to our Ph.D. students Silvia Pizzimenti and Giulia Caroti for their publication "Disclosing the chemistry of oil curing by mass spectrometry using methyl linoleate as a model binder" on Microchemical Journal. In this study a methodological approach for the systematic mass spectrometric investigation of the molecular features of the products of oxidative degradation and cross-linking of oil paint layers upon curing was implemented.
The approach is based on the use of methyl linoleate as a simplified model of an oil paint binder. Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry, flow injection electrospray mass spectrometry and evolved gas analysis mass spectrometry, are used to analyse the evolution of compounds produced over seven months of natural ageing, from the volatile products to the macromolecular and cross-linked fractions. Model paint layers were prepared using lead white and ultramarine blue as pigments. The use of methyl linoleate as model oil binder greatly simplifies the mass spectral features of the lipid paint fraction, enabling the detection of products of oxidation and cross-linking with a new high level of molecular detail. Data clearly show that crucial differences between paints containing the two pigments establish with time, which are mostly related to the cross-linked fraction.
The work is available at the following link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0026265X21010985?dgcid=coauthor
