2007 International Nuclear Atlantic Conference - INAC 2007 Santos, SP, Brazil, September 30 to October 5, 2007 ASSOCIAÇÃO BRASILEIRA DE ENERGIA NUCLEAR - ABEN ISBN: 978-85-99141-02-1 PIXE TECHNIQUE APPLIED TO ALMEIDA JÚNIOR MATERIALS Paulo R. Pascholati 1,2 , Márcia A. Rizzutto 1 , Graziela Neves 1,2 , Manfredo H. Tabacniks 1 , Guilherme F. Moleiro 1 , Flávia A. Dias 1 , and Valéria de Mendonça 2 1 Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo Rua do Matão, Travessa R, 187. CEP 05508-090 Cidade Universitária, São Paulo, SP, Brazil paschola@if.usp.br , rizzutto@if.usp.br , graziela@if.usp.br , tabacniks@if.usp.br , guimol@if.usp.br , fladias@if.usp.br 2 Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN / CNEN - SP) Av. Professor Lineu Prestes 2242 05508-000 São Paulo, SP, Brazil 3 Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo Praça da Luz, 2, Jardim da Luz, CEP 01120-010, São Paulo, SP, Brazil vmendonça@pinacoteca.org.br ABSTRACT The Institute of Physics University of São Paulo in collaboration with the Pinacoteca do Estado of the State of São Paulo has a project to develop a data bank with information about the elementary composition of pigments of paintings and materials of its collection for future application as conservation and restoration as well as authenticity,. The project is beginning with the materials (palette, paint box and paint tubes) belonging to the painter Almeida Jr.. Twenty-three spots on the palette were chosen with determined colors, and also the paint tubes present in the paint box. The PIXE (Particle Induced X-ray Emission) analysis of the spectra enabled to conclude that the red colors have predominant Hg and S suggesting Vermellion and the white one are consisted of Pb (Lead White). The analyzed tubes of same colors confirm the elements pigment present in the palette. 1. INTRODUCTION The Ion Beam Analysis Material Laboratory (Laboratório de Análise de Materiais por Feixes Iônicos – LAMFI) of the Institute of Physics University of São Paulo has installed an external proton beam device for PIXE [1]. This structure is being used in the non-destructive analysis of ceramics, artifacts, paintings and biological tissues, which are not compatible with the high vacuum of the PIXE chamber [2]. The elemental composition of the pigment found on a palette, tubes, and paint box belong to the Brazilian painter Almeida Jr. (1850-1899) were analyzed with PIXE. These materials (shown in figs. 1 and 2) are from the Pinacoteca of State of São Paulo. The PIXE analyses were done on twenty-three spots of different colors on the palette as shown in Fig 1, and on two tubes with red and white pigments.