Effects of buried environment on corrosion of iron artifacts excavated from Heijo Palace Site; Examination of the chloride salt accumulation inside of an iron artifact in soil

Yanagida, Akinobu*; Ura, Yoko*; Mitsui, Seiichiro  ; Ishidera, Takamitsu ; Kawakita, Ryohei  

To investigate chloride salt accumulation inside an iron artifact in soil, non-destructive analysis of three iron artifacts excavated from the Heijo Palace Site was conducted using elemental mapping by X-ray fluorescence analysis, micro-X-ray diffraction analysis, and X-ray computed tomography. Furthermore, the buried environments of the artifacts were presumed based on the previous reports of the environmental investigation at the Heijo Palace site. The results revealed the iron artifact's corrosion behavior was different individually- (1) the iron artifact that was presumed buried under oxidation environments had a goethite/magnetite corrosion layer and contained akageneite inside the corrosion layer. (2) the metal of the other iron artifacts buried under the oxidation environment had eluted absolutely and the artifacts had a rust layer formed by only goethite. (3) the other artifact buried in reduction environments had a rust layer composed of siderite. Accumulation of chloride salts inside an iron artifact was observed only in (1). Because each Cl concentration measured in underground water observation holes at the Heijo Palace Site showed almost the same level concentrations, it was presumed that the accumulation of chloride salts depended on the environmental factor except for Cl concentration. Based on these results, there was a possibility that the occurrence of local corrosion attributed to the separation of anodic and cathodic regions through the formation of the goethite/magnetite rust layer caused chloride salts accumulation inside an iron artifact.