Using Heritage Materials to Inspire New Understanding in Solid State Chemistry

Research problems stemming from investigating or conserving cultural heritage objects can provide a test bed for advancing our collective understanding of complex and dynamic materials, as well as inspiring discovery of new materials families. The key is in recognizing changes that can happen to a material over time scales of years to millennia, due to the environment in which it exists; these kinds of investigations are very under-represented in the field of solid state chemistry. We illustrate this opportunity using examples from our own and others’ work on the long-term alterations of carbonates and complex oxides. In doing so, we emphasize the mutual benefit between synthetic and materials characterization strategies of solid state chemistry and research questions in the field of heritage materials.