The Consortium for Science and Technology of Materials (in Italian: Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per la Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali, INSTM) groups together many Italian university laboratories where research on material science is developed.

The main objective of the Consortium is to provide technical, financial and organising support to the joined universities in order to promote research in the field.  In particular the Consortium allows strong interactions with industry, to provide the basis for the development and the use of innovative materials.
 The Consortium can make available to interested customers a first class environment with sophisticated resources for the study and development of:
  a) metallic materials, alloys and shape-memory materials;
  b) amorphous materials and glasses, from silica for photovoltaic cells to the so-called clever glasses;
  c) polymeric materials;
  d) conductive and superconductive ceramics;
  e) biocompatible materials and materials for sensor devices.
 The Consortium also coordinates the development of new techniques in molecular chemistry aimed at:
  - the non-conventional synthesis of materials;
  - the recycling of such materials;
  - the design and construction of new classes of molecular materials with particular optical,electrical and magnetic features.

The Consortium is located in Florence, via Benedetto Varchi, 59, CAP: 50132.  The Director is Prof. D. Gatteschi of the University of Florence.

INSTM-BC

Within the INSTM Consortium is operative the Cultural Heritage Group (in Italian: Gruppo Beni Culturali, INSTM-BC) which joins university laboratories where research is currently carried out in the field of:

- development and application of modern analytical techniques for the study of constituent materials of cultural heritage artefacts;
- characterisation of alteration processes of artefacts' materials;
- development and application of instrumentation for in situ study, monitoring and control of materials of art-historical artefacts;
- development and applications of materials for cultural heritage conservation.

The national Coordinator of INSTM-BC is Prof. A. Sgamellotti of the University of Perugia.
 
 

THE INSTM-BC OPERATIVE UNIT OF PERUGIA

The Department of Chemistry of the University of Perugia is one of the Operative Units (O.U.) of the Cultural Heritage Group of INSTM. The Department currently develops research on cultural heritage materials, supported by specific University Projects, national MURST (now MIUR) co-financed Projects and national CNR Projects. The Operative Unit of INSTM-BC in Perugia is directed by Prof. B.G. Brunetti.

The Department of Chemistry  is member of the Centre of Excellence (nationally selected by MURST) on Advanced Scientific Technologies Applied to Archaeological and Art-Historical Artefacts, directed by Prof. Mario Torelli of the University of Perugia. In the perspective of  the development and promotion of co-operation between human and physical sciences in the field, the scientific research of the Centre is mainly carried out in cooperation with archaeologists and experts on art-history. The research activity deals with:
- archaeological studies integrated with investigations on constituent materials of artefacts with the goal of establishing their provenance and age, addressing problems of conservation;
- art-historical studies integrated with scientific analyses to establish the manufacturing techniques and to identify possible modifications or alterations of the original artefacts;
- development and applications of advanced techniques to the study of historical artefacts;
- development and application of portable instrumentation.

Permanent cooperations in on Cultural Heritage material studies are established among the Operative Unit of the INSTM-BC of the Department of Chemistry of the University of Perugia (Prof. B.G. Brunetti) and the corresponding Units of the University of Firenze (Prof. D. Gatteschi), Venezia (Prof. G. Biscontin), Padova (Prof. R. Bertoncello, Prof. E. Tondello), Milano (Prof. F. Cariati) and Catania (Prof. E. Ciliberto, Prof. I. Fragala'). The cooperation between these Departments facilitates the access to very many investigation techniques, allowing to perform studies which could be not possible for a single laboratory.

Materials which can be studied are: stones, ceramics, terracotta, glasses, metals, pigments, oils, binding media, varnishes, and polymer synthetic materials.
 
 

 Non destructive techniques are generally preferred, without any sampling. However, it is sometimes useful or even necessary to perform very small size sampling. As the artefacts have often complex and undetermined compositions various analytical methods are often crossed, in order to get pertinent information.
 
 

AVAILABLE EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES

The techniques commonly used in the O.U. of the University of Perugia are:

    - DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
    - OPTICAL MICROSCOPY
   - SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY with EDX
   - TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY with EDX and ELECTRON DIFFRACTION
    - X-RAY FLUORESCENCE
    - X-RAY DIFFRACTION
    - UV-VIS-NIR
    - FT-IR (micro-)
    - RAMAN (micro-)
    - XRF (portable instr.)
    - FT-IR (portable instr.)
     -UV-VIS (portable instr.)
     - GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY AND OTHER ORGANIC ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES

Through co-operation wth other INSTM laboratories:

     -THERMOLUMINESCENCE DATING
    - ICP-AES
    - ICP-MS
    - XPS
    - AUGER
    - MOESSBAUER
    - ESR
    - NMR
    - SIMS
         ..others.....

Through other national or European research facilities:

    -RBS
    -RADIOCARBON DATING
    - SYNCHROTRON RADIATION TECHNIQUES