Poisonous books: analyses of four sixteenth and seventeenth century book bindings covered with arsenic rich green paint

Heritage Science

Table 1 Results of µ-XRF analysis

Element	KLR-11920		KLR-11971		KLR-11972		KLR-12109
Element	Concentration, wt%	RSD, %	Concentration, wt%	RSD, %	Concentration, wt%	RSD, %	Concentration, wt%	RSD, %
Si	5.64	0.1	6.36	0.1	6.73	0.1	5.34	0.1
Al	0.144	1.9	0.625	0.5	0.439	0.6	0.492	0.5
Ca	1.67	0.1	4.31	< 0.0	3.06	< 0.0	2.44	< 0.0
K	1.35	0.1	0.617	0.1	0.696	0.1	1.89	0.1
Ti	0.055	0.3	0.071	0.3	0.042	0.4	0.023	0.6
Sr	0.011	0.3	0.026	1.3	0.028	1.8	0.002	1.5
As	14.7	< 0.0	2.66	< 0.0	8.47	< 0.0	8.46	< 0.0
S	6.30	0.1	2.23	0.1	3.52	0.1	3.52	0.1
Fe	0.22	0.1	0.26	0.1	0.266	0.1	0.224	0.1
Mn	0.013	0.4	0.014	0.5	0.014	0.5	0.011	0.6
Cu	0.004	1.4	0.033	0.2	0.015	0.6	0.007	1.0
Zn	0.036	0.2	0.007	0.8	0.005	1.2	0.023	0.3
Pb	0.010	1.0	0.008	1.0	0.008	1.2	0.005	0.7
Ba	–	–	0.006	1.2	0.011	0.7	0.021	0.3
Rb	0.001	0.3	0.002	0.3	0.002	0.2	0.002	0.2
Hg (counts)	1.94 × 10⁷		1.37 × 10⁶		1.39 × 10⁶		–
Ag (counts)	4.10 × 10⁵		2.37 × 10⁴		2.02 × 10⁵		3.02 × 10⁵
Sb (counts)	2.44 × 10⁴		0.85 × 10⁴		2.54 × 10⁴		3.69 × 10⁴

Absolute calibration of the concentrations has been performed by the DCCR-method (Direct Calibration from Count Rates) using the standard reference material NIST-2711 for most of the elements and NIST-610 for S. The relative standard deviation (RSD) is listed for each element. No standardisation was done for Hg, Ag, and Sb; instead the observed count rates are listed