Laboratory measurement system for pre-corroded sensors devoted to metallic artwork monitoring


ACTA IMEKO 
ISSN: 2221-870X 
March 2021, Volume 10, Number 1, 209 - 216 

 

ACTA IMEKO | www.imeko.org March 2021 | Volume 10 | Number 1 | 209 

Laboratory measurement system for pre-corroded sensors 
devoted to metallic artwork monitoring 

M. Faifer1, S. Goidanich2, C. Laurano1, C. Petiti2, S. Toscani1, M. Zanoni1 

1 DEIB, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano (Italy) 
2 Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering "Giulio Natta", Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32,  
  20133 Milano (Italy) 

 

 

Section: RESEARCH PAPER  

Keywords: Measuring system; corrosion; metallic artwork monitoring; heritage 

Citation: Marco Faifer, Sara Goidanich, Christian Laurano, Chiara Petiti, Sergio Toscani, Michele Zanoni, Laboratory measurement system for pre-corroded 
sensors devoted to metallic artwork monitoring, Acta IMEKO, vol. 10, no. 1, article 28, March 2021, identifier: IMEKO-ACTA-10 (2021)-01-28 

Editor: Ioan Tudosa, University of Sannio, Italy 

Received May 4, 2020; In final form November 23, 2020; Published March 2021 

Copyright: This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, 
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 

Corresponding author: Marco Faifer, e-mail: marco.faifer@polimi.it  

 

1. INTRODUCTION 

The monitoring process plays a crucial role in the preservation 
of metallic artworks. In fact, whenever possible, the control of 
the various environmental parameters presents a critical step in 
the area of preventive conservation. Here, the real-time 
monitoring of environmental corrosivity is a particularly 
important tool for the appropriate preservation of works of art. 
Such an approach allows for not only checking whether the 
environment could be harmful to the artefacts but also for 
selecting the most appropriate conservation solutions. Here, 
metals may be particularly sensitive to any increase in relative 
humidity (RH) or to the presence of specific pollutants in the 
atmosphere, such as low molecular weight carboxylic acids [1], 
[2]. However, while the monitoring of parameters such as 
humidity, temperature, and pollutants is a common practice [3]-
[4], this does not necessarily provide specific information 
regarding the actual impact of the environment on the 
degradation rate of different materials. One possible solution is 

to expose both the object to be monitored and a sample made 
with the same alloy to the same environmental conditions. This 
approach also offers the opportunity to perform invasive 
measurements on the specimen without damaging the work of 
art [3]-[7].  

Another possible approach involves the employment of 
environmental corrosivity sensors [7]-[9]. While for other fields 
of application, various different types of sensors have been 
reported [10]-[12], few solutions have been specifically designed 
for the cultural heritage field [7], [13]-[15]. In fact, the majority 
of the sensors proposed thus far, as well as the European 
standard for the classification of the corrosivity of atmospheres 
[16], do not consider the effect of the presence of corrosion 
layers on the surface. This is of particular importance when 
dealing with historic surfaces, which generally present a fairly 
complex stratigraphy of corrosion layers that can significantly 
affect their corrosion behaviour [7], [9], [17]. The presence of 
hygroscopic products such as chlorides may significantly 
accelerate the corrosion processes, making the corrosion active 

ABSTRACT 
The monitoring of environmental corrosivity around works of cultural heritage is a key task in the field of both active and preventive 
conservation. In the case of metallic artworks, this task can be performed by means of coupons or sensors realised with the same 
materials as the artworks to be conserved. In this work, a measurement system for the development and testing of sensors for 
atmospheric corrosivity monitoring is presented. The metrological features of the measurement system operated in conjunction with a 
developed sensor are analysed. The sensor allows for considering the different corrosion behaviours due to the presence of corrosion 
layers on the object to be preserved. The first developed sensors are made of pre-corroded copper and their resistance is measured. 
The developed system allows for monitoring thickness loss of over 3 nm in the temperature range of 23 °C – 39 °C. The performed 
analysis demonstrated that the system presents an efficient laboratory setup for the development and characterisation of sensors for 
atmospheric corrosivity monitoring. 

mailto:marco.faifer@polimi.it


ACTA IMEKO | www.imeko.org   March 2021 | Volume 10 | Number 1 | 210 

even at a low RH values or in the presence of specific pollutants 
[7], [9], [18], [19].  

Electric resistance (ER) sensors are based on electrical 
resistance measurements that are performed periodically. The 
time-variation of ER measurements can be correlated with the 
instantaneous corrosion rate. However, in order to fully 
represent how environmental conditions affect real works of art, 
an ER-based sensor should be pre-corroded or pre-aged prior to 
exposure. 

Therefore, in order to implement and optimise a more 
effective tool for the monitoring of the degradation effects, it 
became necessary to design and characterise a new setup for the 
realisation of pre-corroded sensors. In previous works, the 
authors developed a sensor that can be preliminarily corroded so 
as to emulate the actual state of conservation of the artwork to 
be monitored [9], [20]. The sensor is based on printed circuit 
board (PCB) technology and requires a measurement system 
performing an electrical resistance tracking over time. However, 
the optimisation of the sensor and the study of specific corrosion 
processes require a huge amount of laboratory endeavours 
supported by high accuracy measurements and controlled 
environments.  

In this paper, our developed measurement system and its 
metrological characterisation is presented. The system was 
designed to guarantee high measurement performance, 
flexibility, and modularity, as well as a good number of 
acquisition channels and ease of use. The metrological 
characterisation allows us to optimise the parameters of the 
measurement system so as to achieve the best performance.  

A complete metrological characterisation of the measurement 
system and the developed sensor is described. Specifically, the 
effectiveness of the temperature compensation on pre-corroded 
and non-pre-corroded sensors is reported. Moreover, the effect 
of the uncertainty of the measurement system on the evaluation 
of the corrosion of the sensor is also investigated. Finally, an 
initial test of the corrosion monitoring via pre-corroded copper-
based sensors in high humidity conditions is reported. 

2. SENSOR DEVELOPEMENT 

The development of the sensor was driven by the aspects of 
cost, flexibility, exposed surface area, measurement system 
characteristics, and sensitivity. Specifically, the developed sensor 
had to guarantee the following: 

• the high surface area is representative of actual corrosion 
conditions,  

• there is an appropriate distance between the traces to 
avoid the presence of short circuit bridges due to the 
formation of corrosion products,  

• there is the possibility of reconfiguration through 
changing the sensor resistance value, 

• it allows for performing a temperature compensation of 
the resistance variation due to thermal drift, 

• low cost of production. 
Based on the above constraints, a PCB solution was adopted. 

Here, the sensor was designed in four sections, two for each face 
of the PCB (Figure 1), to allow for the analysis of different 
measurement techniques and for implementing temperature 
compensation. In this work, terminal E and E’ were connected 
to ensure a full PCB face was exposed to corrosion. Meanwhile, 
one face was protected from corrosion and was adopted as the 
reference for the temperature compensation (reference 
resistance: RR), while the other face was subjected to corrosion 

(corrosion resistance: RC). The geometrical parameters of the 
sensor were selected as shown in Figure 1. The tracks were made 
of copper to allow for the monitoring of copper-based objects, 
and had a rated thickness of 17 µm, meaning each face of the 
sensor had a rated value of 0.317 Ω. The PCB substrate was 
made of FR4 and had a thickness of 1.6 mm. 

In the preliminary design phase, we considered different 
environmental conditions leading to different corrosion rates 
ranging from 100 µm/year (representing highly polluted and 
aggressive outdoor environments) to 5·10−3 µm/year 
(representing controlled environments with low levels of RH and 
pollutants). 

The corrosion rate (µm/year) was defined by assuming that 
the corrosion was uniform on the sensor surface. This means 
that by monitoring the thickness of the sensor, it should be 
possible to estimate the corrosion processes at the same time. 
Now, let us consider the expression of the resistance in terms of 
resistivity ρ and the geometrical parameters: 

L L
R

S h
 


= =  (1) 

where, L, h, δ are the total length, the width, and the thickness of 
the PCB tracks, respectively. Here, there exists an inversely 
proportional relationship between the resistance of the sensor 
and its thickness. Therefore, by monitoring the variation of the 
sensor resistance, it was possible to obtain information regarding 
the corrosion rate. Moreover, it became clear that the choice of 
track thickness will directly affect the sensitivity and lifetime of 
the sensors. Therefore, the design of the sensor was optimised in 
terms of lifetime and sensitivity for a specified level of corrosion 
rate, within a reasonable range of variation. 

By measuring the RR and RC, it was possible to compensate 
the thermal drift of the resistance’s values – which is due to the 

 

 

Figure 1. Schematic and photograph of the sensor layout.  



ACTA IMEKO | www.imeko.org   March 2021 | Volume 10 | Number 1 | 211 

environment temperature variations – by computing the ratio 
between the two resistive values for a generic temperature T: 

( )( )
( )( )

0 0 0

00 0

1

1

CC C
C

R RR

R T TR R
K

R RR T T





+ −
= = =

+ −
 (2) 

where RC0 and RR0 are the corrosion and the reference resistance 
values at temperature T0, respectively, and α is the thermal 
coefficient of the conductive material of the PCB tracks. The 
assumption for a good compensation is that α is the same for 
both resistances.  

Assuming that the corrosion acts only on the RC track and 
that it is uniform, it is possible to define the relative variation of 
the thickness between a generic time t and a reference time t0: 

( ) ( )

( ) ( )
0

0 0

( )
( )

C C

C C

t t t
t

t t

 


 

− 
= =  (3) 

Therefore, KC at the generic time t is independent of the 
temperature T and can be defined as follows: 

( )
( ) ( )( )0 1

C R R
C

RC C

L h
K t

Lh t t



 
=

−
 (4) 

 

where (t) is the relative reduction of the track thickness, L, h, 
δ are the total length, width and thickness of the PCB tracks, 
respectively, and the subscripts R and C are the reference and 
corrosion resistances, respectively. By normalising KC(t) in terms 
of its value at the reference time t0, it is possible to estimate the 
variation of the thicknesses and hence the corrosion rate: 

( )
( )

( )

( )

( )

( )

( ) ( )
0

0 0

1

1

RC C

C R C

R tK t R t
C t

K t R t R t t
= = =

−
 (5) 

Moreover, the absolute thickness reduction can be computed, 
provided the initial track thickness δC(t0) is known: 

( ) ( )
( )

( )

( )

( )

( )

( )
( )

0 0

0
0

0

1
( ) 1

1

C C C

C R
C

R C

t t t t
C t

R t R t
t

R t R t

  



 
 = − = −  =  

 

 
= −   
 

 (6) 

Naturally, the minimum detectable variation of (t) strongly 
depends on the resolution and the accuracy of the instrument 
used to perform the resistance measurements. In fact, by 
considering the measurement uncertainty of the instrument and 
the measurement procedure, the uncertainty on the evaluation of 

(t) can be defined. 
As described in the next section, all resistances were measured 

using the same digital multi-meter (DMM), the measurement 
accuracy of which is defined by the common binomial equation: 

( )( )       a R X ppm of reading Y ppm of range=  +  (7) 

This expression considers the effect of the noise and the non-
ideality of the instrument for non-correlated measurements. It is 
clear that, given the measurement process based on the ratio of 
the two measured resistances, the estimation of the measurement 
uncertainty must involve some consideration of the correlation 
between the measurements. In fact, the correlation reduces the 
uncertainty in the evaluation of C(t). 

For each resistor, the true value R is known only through a 
measurement process, while since the instrument could be 
affected by a gain error ΔH, the measurement model that relates 
the measured value Rm to R is the following: 

( )1mR H R R= +  +   (8) 

where: 

• ΔH is a zero mean random variable that models the 
calibration error of the multimeter. Since it slowly 
changes in time, temporally close extractions are 
completely correlated (therefore, it is not reduced via 
repeated measures) while its correlation decreases 
when temporally distant extractions are considered, 
thus, due to the effect of the drifts, they can be 
regarded as independent. 

• ΔR is a random variable with a mean value of zero that 
models the impact of the instrument noise. The 
variance due to the noise σ2(R) can be estimated using 
a category A approach and/or the constant term of the 
binomial formula of the multimeter. The extractions 
can always be regarded as independent. 

By substituting Eq. (8) in Eq. (5), we can obtain the following: 

( )
N

C t
D

=  (9) 

where the numerator and denominator of (9) can be written 

as follows: 

( ) ( )( ) ( )

( ) ( )( ) ( )0 0 0

1

1

C C

R R

R t H t R tN

R t H t R t

  + +  =  

  + + 
 

 (10) 

( ) ( )( ) ( )

( ) ( )( ) ( )0 0 0

1

1

R R

C C

D R t H t R t

R t H t R t

 =  + +  
 

  + + 
 

 (11) 

By neglecting the second-order products in Eqs. (10) and (11), 
Eq. (9) can be written as follows: 

( )
( ) ( )

( ) ( )
( ) ( )

( )

( )

( )

( )
( ) ( )

( )

( )

( )

( )

0
0

0

0 0
0

0 0

1
R C C

R C C

R C

R C

R

R

R t R t R t
C t H t H t

R t R t R t

R t R t
H t H t

R t R t

R t

R t

 
= +  +  + +



 
+ −  −  − +


− 



 
(12) 

( )
( ) ( )

( ) ( )

( )

( )

( )

( )

( )

( )

( )

( )

0 0

0 0

0

0

1
R C RC

R C C R

C R

C R

R t R t R tR t
C t

R t R t R t R t

R t R t

R t R t

 
= + +



 
− − 



 (13) 

Meanwhile, the standard deviation of parameter C(t) can be 
computed as follows: 

( ) ( )

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

2 22 2

0

0 0 0

1 1 1 1R C
C R

R C C R C R

R t R t

R t R t R t R t R t R t
 

 
       

= + + +      
       
        

 
(14) 



ACTA IMEKO | www.imeko.org   March 2021 | Volume 10 | Number 1 | 212 

where R can be evaluated via a category A approach. 
Finally, the standard uncertainty on the thickness variation 

evaluation can be estimated as follows: 

( )
( )

( )( )
( )

( )
( )

22

02 2
0 2

1
( ) 1 ( )

C
C

t
u t t C t

C t C t


  

   −
  = − +    

   

 (15) 

3. MEASUREMENT SETUP 

In order to appropriately characterise the proposed sensor, a 
VI-based measurement system was developed (Figure 2). As 
noted above, the measurement setup must guarantee good 
measurement performance, flexibility, and modularity, as well as 
a good number of acquisition channels and ease of use.  

A Keithley 3706 was used for performing the required 4-wire 
resistance measurements. As such, no contact resistances were 
included in the resistance measurements. The Keithley 
instrument was chosen since it provides a multi-channel 
measurement solution by means of switching cards, which means 
different pre-corroded sensors can be tested with the same high-
resolution DMM as part of a cost-effective solution. In fact, each 
switching card can perform 20 4-wire resistance measurements. 
The 4-wire configuration allows for compensating the additional 
resistances due to the cables, the switching card, and the 
connection. The Keithley 3706 incorporates six slots, which 
means 120 resistance measurements can potentially be acquired 
with one DMM. In this work, only one switching card was 
connected. 

For each tested sensor, three resistance measures were 
required: the resistance of the track exposed to corrosion, the 
resistance of the track used as reference for the temperature 
compensation, and the resistance of the pt100 temperature 
sensor. Given this requirement, the measuring system has the 
capacity to accommodate six sensors for characterisation.  

Each single measure presented is the result of ten averaged 
measurements performed over five power line cycles (PLCs). 
The minimum analysis time for each sensor was 18 s. These 
limits and configuration parameters were defined on the basis of 
the measuring system characterisation that is reported in the 
following section. 

For each measure, the mean value and its standard deviation 
were computed and subsequently saved on a log file. The 
graphical interface of the developed measuring system is 

presented in Figure 3. The interface was made up of a 
configuration panel that allowed for setting the instrument 
parameters, as well as a measurement panel on which the 
measurements of the resistances over time were displayed. 

4. MEASUREMENT SYSTEM CHARACTERISATION 

In order to evaluate the accuracy and sensitivity of the 
measurement system, a series of tests were performed. First, the 
measurement noise of the system was evaluated by performing a 

measurement campaign on a standard resistance RS = 0.1  
characterised by a low thermal coefficient and placed into a 
climatic chamber that guaranteed a temperature of 23.0 °C ± 
0.2 °C. The temperature was monitored using a digital 
thermometer (Dostman Electronics model P655-LOG) with a 
pt100 sensor. Meanwhile, a second channel was used for 
measuring the resistance of one face of the developed sensor 
placed in the same climatic chamber. The current was injected 
from terminal A and collected at terminal B (see Figure 1), while 
the voltage drop was measured between terminals C and D. This 
allowed for evaluating the noise related to the sensor geometry 
and connections. The experimental setup is presented in Figure 
4. 

The DMM range was set to 1 Ω, which was appropriate for 
both the standard resistance and the developed sensor, while the 
dry circuit and offset compensation features were enabled. The 
DMM used in a 4-wire resistance configuration allows for setting 
the measurement time in terms of number of PLCs (NPLC). 
Moreover, the time between the closing operation of the 
switching card and the DMM activation can be controlled, with 
the intentional delay time TD used to ensure that the resistance 
measurements are performed when the system is in a steady state 
condition. In order to optimise the DMM parameters, different 
tests were performed on the standard and the sensor resistances. 
A total of 100 measurements were performed for both channels, 
with a TD ranging from 0 to 10 s and an NPLC deemed as equal 

 

Figure 2. The measurement system architecture.  

 

Figure 3. The VI front panel.  

 

Figure 4. Measurement system characterisation setup.  



ACTA IMEKO | www.imeko.org   March 2021 | Volume 10 | Number 1 | 213 

to 1, 5, or 10. The standard deviation was then computed for 
both the standard resistance RS and the sensor resistance RC in 
each test condition: 

( )  
2

avg

1

1

1

N
n

n

s R R R
N =

= −
−


 

(16) 

The results are presented in Figure 5 and Figure 6 for different 
TD and NPLC values.  

Focusing on the standard deviation of RS, it was clear that 
when NPLC = 1 was considered, the overall uncertainty was 
much higher than with NPLC = 5 and NPLC = 10 
(approximatively double). Meanwhile, when no TD was 
considered, a higher standard deviation value was observed. 
Therefore, it can be stated that the best trade-off between 
measurement time and uncertainty was obtained with NPLC = 
5, as was expected given the instrument’s datasheet [22]. In terms 
of the sensor resistance RC, higher standard deviation values were 
observed in all cases, while a similar trend was evident. Thus, for 
each TD, the best results were achieved with NPLC = 5. In fact, 
when NPLC = 10, that is, double the observation time, no 
significant improvements in terms of standard deviation were 
achieved. 

Focusing on the data for NPLC = 5, it was important to check 
whether the resistance measurements were performed in a steady 
state condition for each TD. The attendant measurement results 
for the standard are presented in Figure 7, while those for the 
sensor resistances are presented in Figure 8. 

In terms of the standard resistance RS, it was clear that when 
no delay was set, there existed a transient effect that extended 
across around 10 measurement points. This transient effect 
could be mitigated by increasing the TD. However, in terms of 

the sensor resistance RC, this behaviour was more evident and a 
TD of at least 3 s had to be considered to prevent the emergence 
of the transient effects. These differences in dynamic behaviour 
can be attributed to the different impedance of the two channels. 

Finally, it can be stated that the best trade off in terms of 
accuracy and time was achieved with TD = 5 s and NPLC = 5, 
with the standard deviation on the standard resistance reaching a 

value of 3.7‧10−6 Ω and the sensor resistance reaching a value of 

8.7‧10−6 Ω under these conditions. This difference can be 
attributed to the design of the PCB sensor and to other 
environmental noise sources. As a final point on the 
measurement noise analysis, the standard uncertainty had to be 
determined in terms of the average value of RC across all 100 
measurements: 

( ) ( )
( )

,avg

C

A C C

s R
u R s R

N
= =

, 
(17) 

which resulted in 8.7‧10−7 Ω. 

5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS 

The proposed measurement system was developed to 
evaluate the sensitivity of the developed sensor to different 
environmental conditions. As noted above, one face of each 
sensor was protected from the corrosion using three layers of 
Incralac, an acrylic-based protective coating, which ensured the 
temperature compensation as described in the previous section. 
To evaluate the efficiency of the proposed compensation, a 
measurement campaign was performed. Specifically, four 

 

Figure 5. Standard deviation of RS in different test conditions.  

 

Figure 6. Standard deviation of sensor resistance in different test conditions.  

 

Figure 7. Measurements of RS for NPLC=5 and different TD values.  

 

Figure 8. Measurements of RC for NPLC = 5 and different TD values.  



ACTA IMEKO | www.imeko.org   March 2021 | Volume 10 | Number 1 | 214 

sensors (S01, S02, S03, and S04) were tested. Here, a layer of 
cuprite (Cu2O) was realised on S01, while a chloride and 
sulphate-based patina was realised on S02, with the remaining 
two sensors not pre-corroded. All sensors were left to corrode at 
98 % RH for around one month prior to the characterisation. 
Here, the main aim was to produce artificial patinas with a 
composition that was representative of the corrosion products 
commonly found on the surfaces of cultural heritage objects. The 
cuprite patina was selected since it is generally the first corrosion 
product that forms on copper alloys [23]-[27]. Meanwhile, the 
chloride and sulphate-based patina was selected to reproduce the 
surface conditions of highly unstable artefacts from a corrosion 
point of view [7].  

Before considering the performance of the developed sensor 
in the corrosion monitoring, it was crucial to verify the efficiency 
of the temperature compensation in different corrosion 
conditions of the sensors. Therefore, the sensors were placed in 
a climatic chamber, with the RH kept below 20 % to ensure 
negligible corrosion rates [8]. A temperature profile was then set 
and monitored using the pt100. Here, the sensors and the pt100 
were carefully placed in the chamber so as to reduce the effects 
due to the thermal gradient during the warming up process. The 
temperature was changed from a minimum of 23 °C to a 
maximum of 39 °C, as shown in Figure 9. Due to the control 
system of the climatic chamber, the temperature profile was 
characterised by overshooting during the warming up phase and 

by a temperature ripple of around 1.2 °C with a frequency of 30 
min during the phase of maintaining the temperature.  

The developed measurement system was used to monitor the 
sensors, S01, S02, S03, and S04, for around 320 h. For each 
sensor, the two resistive values, RC and RR, were measured.  As 
expected, the temperature variation provoked a non-negligible 
change in sensor resistance (Figure 10). 

As previously described, this effect can be compensated by 
computing the parameter C(t) according to Eq. (5). This 
parameter allowed for evaluating the thickness reduction as 

described in Eq. (6). 11 shows the (t) computed for each sensor, 
with the attendant fluctuation indicating that there was a 
temperature mismatch between the two faces of the sensors 
during the environment temperature variation. Specifically, it was 
clear that the rapid temperature ripple of 1.2 °C caused a 

fluctuation in (t) of around 2 nm. 
In order to remove this effect, a moving average filtering of 

the data could be performed. Based on the temperature 
oscillation, as well as some consideration of the sensor 
application, an average time window of 1 h was chosen. Figure 
12 presents the results of the filtering process, where it was clear 
that the temperature compensation depended on the sensors. 

Overall, the experimental results demonstrated that the 
temperature compensation achieved a good performance. In 

 

Figure 9. Temperature over time.  

 

Figure 10. Sensor resistances over time.  

 

11. The (t) over time for sensors S01, S02, S03 and S04.  

 

Figure 12. The filtered (t) for sensors S01, S02, S03 and S04.  



ACTA IMEKO | www.imeko.org   March 2021 | Volume 10 | Number 1 | 215 

fact, the fluctuation in (t) was in the order of 3 nm for a 
temperature variation of around 20 °C. This value was higher 
than the uncertainty that was due to the measurement system, 
which, assuming a sensor thickness uncertainty of 10 %, was in 
the order of 0.3 nm. This means that any corrosion producing a 

variation in (t) over 3 nm can be attributed to the corrosion 
effects in the considered temperature range for the sensors in 
question. 

Sensors S01, S02, and S03 were used to evaluate the increase 
in corrosion rate that occurs when the RH is increased to 
extremely high values (RH ≥ 98 %, 25 ± 3 °C). 

As Figure 13 shows, a sudden and relevant increase in 
corrosion rate was recorded across all the sensors as a 
consequence of the RH increase. The corrosion was calculated 
from the slope of the curves and, during the first two days, it was 
found to be around 5 μm/y for the sensor with the cuprite patina 
(S01), while a far more dramatic increase was observed up to a 
value of around 58 μm/y for the sensor with the chloride and 
sulphate-based patina (S02). The non-pre-corroded sensor (S03) 
exhibited the lowest corrosion rate, which, during the first two 
days, was around 0.2 μm/y. It was also clear that the corrosion 
rate tended to decrease with time (Figure 13), which suggested a 
gradual stabilisation of the surface over time. 

The obtained results demonstrated that the sensors can track 
metal corrosion and that the acceleration of the corrosion rate is 
highly influenced by the presence and composition of the 
corrosion layers over the surface. 

6. CONCLUSIONS 

In this paper, the metrological characterisation of a 
measurement system designed for the development of sensors 
for the monitoring of the environmental corrosivity affecting 
copper-based artworks was presented. Furthermore, a sensor 
that allows for consideration of the presence of corrosion layers 
on historic surfaces was reported. The measuring system is 
characterised by good flexibility and modularity, and allows for 
performing measurements on up to 40 sensors. According to the 
results of the preliminary tests, the system appears to be highly 
promising. Specifically, the measurement uncertainty and the 
efficiency of the temperature compensation process was 
evaluated, with an accuracy of 3 nm within a temperature range 
of 23 °C – 39 °C demonstrated. This means that the proposed 

corrosion sensors could be used for heritage preservation. The 
proposed system was then used to evaluate the impact of pre-
corrosion on the corrosion rate of copper-based artefacts 
providing relevant information. The proposed system can be 
regarded as a promising solution for the development and 
characterisation of sensors for the monitoring of copper-based 
cultural heritage. 

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.corsci.2014.06.007
https://doi.org/10.1179/2047058412Y.0000000080
https://doi.org/10.3390/s140508779
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.11.080
https://doi.org/10.1179/019713690806046064
https://www.imeko.org/publications/tc4-Archaeo-2019/IMEKO-TC4-METROARCHAEO-2019-106.pdf
https://www.imeko.org/publications/tc4-Archaeo-2019/IMEKO-TC4-METROARCHAEO-2019-106.pdf
https://download.tek.com/manual/3700AS-901-01C_Jul_2016_Ref_3.pdf
https://download.tek.com/manual/3700AS-901-01C_Jul_2016_Ref_3.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-938X(01)00081-6
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.corsci.2019.01.002
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.corsci.2020.108477
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.corsci.2019.05.025
https://doi.org/10.21014/acta_imeko.v7i3.610