Organic Materials

The cultural heritage has an enormous variety of organic materials (paper, leather, furniture, textiles, pigments, bindings, varnishes, …). This chapter presents the results currently attained in analyzing several of these materials. The essential aspects of the so-called vegetal electrochemistry are discussed concerning its application for studying wooden objects, paper, and charcoal. The electrochemical analysis of tar pitch involves the detection of polymerization processes of sulfur-based compounds. Tentative procedures for dating wood using the lignin/vanillin proportion and charcoal exploiting electrocatalytic processes are also discussed.