Noninvasive identification of carbon-based black pigments with pump-probe microscopy

Heidi V Kastenholz; Michael I Topper; Warren S Warren; Martin C Fischer; David Grass

doi:10.1126/sciadv.adp0005

Noninvasive identification of carbon-based black pigments with pump-probe microscopy

Sci Adv. 2024 Dec 13;10(50):eadp0005. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adp0005. Epub 2024 Dec 11.

Authors

Heidi V Kastenholz¹, Michael I Topper², Warren S Warren^{1

2

3

4}, Martin C Fischer^{1

2}, David Grass¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
² Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
³ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
⁴ Department of Radiology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA.

Abstract

Carbon-based black pigments, a widely used class of pigments, are difficult to differentiate with the noninvasive techniques currently used in cultural heritage science. We use pump-probe microscopy, coupled with a support vector machine, to distinguish common carbon-based black pigments as pure pigments, as two-component black pigment mixtures, and as a mixture of a black and a colorful pigment. This work showcases the potential of pump-probe microscopy to spatially differentiate carbon-based black pigments, which would have interesting applications to works of art.