Tracking the Progression of the Simulated Bronze Disease—A Laboratory X-ray Microtomography Study

The internal three-dimensional characteristics of X-ray microtomography (micro-CT) has great application potential in the field of bronze corrosion. This work presents a method of simulating bronze disease based on an in situ micro-CT image to study the characteristics of the oxidative hydrolysis reactions of copper(I) chloride and copper(II) chloride dihydrate. A series of high-resolution reconstruction images were obtained by carrying out micro-CT at three key points throughout the experiment. We found that the reactions of copper(I) chloride and copper(II) chloride dihydrate showed different characteristics at different stages of the simulation in the micro-CT view. The method proposed in this work specifically simulated one single type of bronze corrosion and characterized the evolution characteristics of simulated bronze disease. It provides a new perspective to investigate bronze disease and can help improve the subsequent use of micro-CT to distinguish real bronze corrosions.