Stereocromium (from Greek, στερεός, stereos = solid, χρωμα, chroma = color) or silicate painting, is a painting technique similar to the fresco, used mainly for paintings on exterior walls exposed to weathering, introduced in 1846 by the chemist Johann Nepomuk von Fuchs and the painter Josef Schlotthauer. Stereocromium is characterized by the use of soluble glass as a binder in place of the usual lime and casein binders. The process was later refined by Adolf Wilhelm Keim (1878) who introduced the two-component technique used today with binder and pigments. Modern single-component silicate paints were only introduced in 1967.
In principle, the technique consists in applying pigments mixed with a soluble silicone solution (soluble glass) on a highly absorbent plaster. Following the evaporation of water, the silicates react to form a very hard layer of amorphous silicates, which is also chemically bound to the underlying plaster. These paintings are more resistant to atmospheric agents than paintings using conventional organic binders. Normally potassium silicates are used because the sodium reagents react with carbon dioxide naturally present in the atmosphere and form efflorescence. Bibliografiamodifica wikitesto
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