• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.107-120
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• 2017

This research involves a gilding experiment using plum acid that has previously been reported to restore Geumdongsamjonpanbul excavated from Wolji, Gyeongju. Chromaticity analysis revealed that the yellowness of the samples was high, and the samples treated with acid for more than 10 minutes showed high brightness. SEM studies revealed that the sample subjected to amalgam application and immediate heating was rarely gilded with gold. When the amalgam application time was longer than 36 h, the gold layer observed was uneven. Therefore, the optimum amalgam application time was 12-24 h. EDS analysis showed that mercury content was ~5 wt.% for samples with an acid treatment time of 20 min, lower than that in other samples. Gold gilding was successful for the sample with amalgam application time of 24 h and acid treatment time of 20 min. This sample showed the high-resolution XPS peak corresponding to Au and retains a little Hg compared with the other samples. In other words, experimental and analytical results using plum acid showed that gilding was successful when acid treatment time was 20 min and amalgam application time was 24 h. Based on these results, Geumdongsamjonpanbul excavated from Wolji, Gyeongju can be restored.