Long-chain mercury carboxylates relevant to saponification in oil and tempera paintings: XRPD and ssNMR complementary study of their crystal structures.

Saponification, resulting from pigment-binder interactions, is one of the most endangering phenomena affecting the appearance and stability of painted works of art. The crystallization of metal carboxylates (soaps) in paint layers is recently assumed as the most critical point for the development of undesirable changes induced by saponification, however, the factors triggering it are not fully understood. The red pigment cinnabar (HgS) has been suspected of contributing to saponification, however, the paucity of reliable reference structural data limited the experimental research of its effect at the molecular level. Within this study we synthesized mercury(II) carboxylates of the formula Hg(C16)