AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The primary objective of the Module is to provide the student with a general view of the behavior (chemical and physico-chemical) of the most important functional groups of organic chemistry. On the grounds of the knowledge so acquired, the course will examine more in detail the essential characteristics (constitution, preparation, reactivity) of the main typologies of organic compounds or more specific interest in the field of Cultural Heritage (solvents, resins, ligands and siccative oils, temperas, dyes and pigments, protectives, varnishes, polymeric materials); the understanding of the factors that regulate the behaviot of such materials is the basis for a correct and effective planning and interpretation of diagnostics, finalized to the use of modern techniques of conservation, consolidation or restoration.

The Module has a further objective, i.e. to provide the students with a practical/manual skill as to the treatment of materials of artistic interest, also by means of preparative laboratory activities and of instrumental analyses.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The attendance to the programmed educational activities (lectures and laboratory experiments) will allow the student to acquire basic knowledge on the chemical and physico-chemical behavior of the more important functional groups of organic chemistry.

More specifically, the student:

• will gain sufficient knowledge on the behavior (stability, reactivity, answer to the main external causes of stress) of the organic materials most employed in the artistic field;
• will be able to foresee the occurrence, or explain the reason, of the alteration or degrade of artistic materials, and hence
• will be able to interpret correctly the outcomes of the basic (i.e. hose employed in the laboratory activities) or more specific diagnostic techniques (whose teaching is part of the program of future courses of the Master Degree).

TEACHING METHODS

Teaching consists of classroom lectures and practical/theoretical laboratory activities. A regular attendance to lectures and laboratory activities is strongly recommended.

Classroom lectures are delivered making use of multimedial devices (such as powerpoint presentations). At the end of each section of the program, classroom tests are scheduled for the auto-assessment of learning.

Laboratory activities (carried out in properly equipped rooms of DCCI) are aimed at a practical application of the selected aspects of the theoretical knowledge acquired during classroom lectures.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The program consists of the presentation and discussion of the following arguments:

• the nomenclature of organic chemistry: functional groups, principles of the IUPAC or of other proposals of systematic nomenclature, prefixes and suffixes;
• application of the general principles of isomerism to organic molecules, with particular regard to the structural (constitutional) and to the configurational isomerism;
• in-depth examination of the covalent bond (with its different typologies) as well as of “weak” bonds, responsible for many physico-chemical properties of organic molecules;
• examination of the basic behavior of the main classes of organic compounds: hydrocarbons (aliphatic and aromatic, both of interest e.g. as solvents in art), haloderivatives, oxygen-containing compounds (alcohols, ethers, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids and their derivatives);
• polyfunctional compounds (with particular attention for those used as ligands in artwoks (triesters of glycerol, waxes, phospholipids, carbohydrates, proteins);
• nucleic acids: only for completeness sake;
• synthetic polymers: types, main polymerization and processuing protocols, applications in the field of Cultural Heritage as dyes, protectives, consolidants;
• silicons and fluorinated polymers;
• classroom and laboratory activities on selected argumentsn of the program (e.g. extraction of dyes from natural sources and their application to the dying of textiles with different processes/technologies.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

All slides used for the lectures, together with further educational aids, will be available on the AulaWeb platform at the end of any series of lectures or lab activities.

The books indicated below are suggested as reference books, available for consultation from the library of the School of “Scienze M.F.N.”

The students can anyway make use of further books at the university level.

Brown - Poon, Introduzione alla Chimica Organica, EdiSES.

Matteini - Moles, La Chimica nel Restauro – I materiali dell’arte pittorica, Nardini Ed.

Mills - White, The Organic Chemistry of Museum Objects, 2° Ed., Routledge, 1994.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

GIOVANNI PETRILLO (President)

LAURA GAGGERO

FEDERICO LOCARDI

LESSONS

LESSONS START

For lessons and timetable start at the following link: http://www.distav.unige.it/ccsbenicultura/orario-lezioni

Class schedule

CHEMISTRY FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE MODULE 2

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam is common to the two Modules and consists of an oral discussion on arguments treated during the lectures as part of the program.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Details on procedures for the preparation of exams and on the required in-depth degree of knowledge for each argument will be provided during the lectures.

The exam will be based mainly ofn the arguments treated in the lectures, aimed to the evaluation not only of the attainment, by the student, of an adequale knowledge level, but also of the possess of the ability to recall theory, applying them to real contexts. The student will be also asked to correlate and integrate knowledges from the laboratory activities whith those acquired during lectures. The ability to present arguments clearly, in a lessically correct and non mnemonic way will also be evaluated.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

A regular attendance to lectures and laboratory activities is strongly recommended.