Equipment for Multiple Projects: Cisorp Water Sorption Analyser.

CI水吸附分析仪微天平的目的是支持一些正在进行的资助研究活动，并使曼彻斯特大学建筑科学研究小组及其更广泛的相关网络（爱丁堡大学材料科学与工程中心；布里斯托尔大学界面分析中心）能够开展广泛的进一步工作。微天平将大量投入到目前资助的石灰砂浆系统工作中，不仅可以研究这些材料的碳化率，还可以研究这些材料的水化率。申请者最近发表了一个新的动力学定律，表明烧制粘土陶瓷化学吸附大气水分引起的质量增加和相关膨胀应变都与（时间）1/4成正比。这种渐进的化学驱动过程表明，烧制粘土发生了非常显著的再羟基化作用，这个过程非常缓慢，在所有实际的历史时间尺度上都在继续。事实上，我们在2000年前的陶瓷中发现了残留的反应性。反应的极其缓慢的进展似乎是这些材料的基础，必须具有科学意义。这种反应的潜在机制还远未被理解。正是利用这个（时间）1/4定律作为考古测年方法，形成了拟议的微平衡工作的核心。我们已经证明，可以通过测量再加热前的质量来估计陶瓷文物的年龄，并将其与再加热后同一样品的后续质量增益进行比较。质量增益的测量提供了校准数据，该数据定义了特定材料的质量增益随时间的速率。因此，试样的年龄可以通过数据的外推来确定获得测量的长期质量的时间。由于该方法是自校准的，因此消除了烧制温度、矿物、成分等差异的影响。这项工作需要在精确控制的温度和相对湿度条件下对陶瓷样品进行高精度称重。与此同时，这种测量技术是深入了解潜在化学吸收机制的有力手段。此外，该仪器将使各种研究成为可能，否则传统测量技术无法实现这些研究。其中包括对玻璃（特别是在污染大气中）的化学吸附反应的研究，以及对天然建筑石材降解机制的研究——在这种情况下，重点是城市大气污染物。

The purpose of the CI water sorption analyser microbalance is to support a number of ongoing funded research activities and to enable a wide range of further work within the Construction Science Research Group at the University of Manchester and its wider associated network (Centre for Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Edinburgh; the Interface Analysis Centre, University of Bristol). The microbalance will have substantial input into currently funded work on lime mortar systems and will enable studies not only of carbonation rates but also of hydration rates in these materials. The applicants recently published a new kinetic law which shows that the mass gain and associated expansive strain caused by the chemisorption of atmospheric moisture by fired clay ceramics are both proportional to (time)1/4. This progressive chemically driven process indicates a very remarkable rehydroxylation of the fired clay which is so slow that it continues certainly over all practical historical timescales. Indeed we have found residual reactivity in 2000 year old ceramic. The extremely slow progress of the reaction appears to be fundamental to these materials and must be scientifically significant. The underlying mechanisms of this reaction are as yet far from understood. It is the exploitation of this (time)1/4 law as a method of archaeological dating that forms the core of the proposed microbalance work. We have shown that it is possible to estimate the age of a ceramic artefact by measuring its mass prior to reheating and comparing this with the subsequent mass gain from the same sample following reheating. Measurement of the mass gain provides calibration data that define the rate of mass gain with time for that particular material. The specimen's age may therefore be established by extrapolation of the data to determine the time at which the measured long-term mass would be attained. Since the method is self-calibrating, the effects of differences in firing temperature, mineralogy, composition etc are eliminated. This work requires the extremely high-accuracy weighing of ceramic samples under precisely controlled conditions of temperature and relative humidity. In parallel with this, such a measurement technique is a powerful means of gaining insight into the underlying chemisorptive mechanisms. Further, the instrument will enable a diverse range of studies which would otherwise be inaccessible with conventional measurement techniques. These include the investigation of chemisorption reactions in glasses (particularly in polluting atmospheres) and investigations of the degradation mechanisms in natural building stones - in this case with a focus on urban atmospheric pollutants.