Study of the deterioration of sandstone due to acid rain and humid SO2 gas

摘要

The aim of this work was to study the deterioration of various kinds of sandstone due to acid rain and SO2 gas. The samples were taken from three quarries in Poland and one sample was from a tomb about 100 years old. To elucidate the mechanism of stone deterioration, simple experiments were performed. The sandstone samples were immersed for several weeks in SO2 aqueous solution of pH approximate to 4. Similar experiments were performed using SO2 aqueous solution of pH approximate to 1.5. The concentrations of Ca, Mg and Fe leached from the sandstone samples were measured with TXRF. An additional experiment was carried out with the use of radioactive (SO2)-S-35. The samples were exposed to both (SO2)-S-35 aqueous solution and to (SO2)-S-35 gas. The autoradiograms obtained from the sample cross-sections indicated that sulfur penetrated to the interior parts of sandstone samples, especially from SO2 gas. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.