Advanced materials engineering in historical gypsum plaster formulations

We show how historical gypsum plaster preparation methods affect the microstructure and the wettability properties of the final stucco materials. We reproduced a traditional Persian recipe (Gach-e Koshteh, ~14th century AD), which involves a continuous mechanical treatment during plaster hydration. These samples were compared with a laboratory-replicated historical recipe from Renaissance Italy (Gesso Sottile, ~15th century AD) and contemporary low-strength plaster. The Koshteh recipe induces the formation of gypsum platelets, which exhibit preferential orientation in the plaster bulk. In contrast, the Italian and low-strength plasters comprise a typical needle-like morphology of gypsum crystals. The platelets in Koshteh expose the more hydrophilic {010} face of gypsum in a much more pronounced manner than needles. Consequently, the Iranian plaster displays enhanced wettability, enabling its direct use for water-based decoration purposes, or as a fine finishing thin layer, without the need of mixing it with a binder material. Contrary, in Sottile, gypsum crystals are left to equilibrate in large excess of water, which promotes the growth of long needles at the expense of smaller crystals. Typically, such needles are several times longer than those found in a control regular plaster. For this crystal habit, the total surface of hydrophilic faces is minimized. Consequently, such plaster layers tend to repel water, which can then be used, e.g., as a substrate for oil-based panel paintings. These findings highlight the development of advanced functional materials, by tuning their microtexture, already during the premodern era.The German Research Foundation (DFG) supported this research as a part of the project “Aesthetics of Stucco and Tiles” in the Islamic Art and Archaeology at the University of Bamberg (DFG project number 399216810). We are thankful to Prof. Lorenz Korn, University of Bamberg, for his valuable help and support during this DFG project. We kindly acknowledge Sigrid Benemann (BAM), Vasile-Dan odoroaba (BAM), and Sathish Mayanna (ZEISS Microscopy) for performing SEM analysis of selected samples. We also acknowledge Carsten Prinz (BAM) and Annett Zimathies (BAM) for the gas sorption and porosimetry measurements