Dissolution of salts crystallised in building materials using ultrasound: an alternative to NORMAL (1983) standard methodology

Our aim in the present work is to extract salts from ornamental stone using a faster and less tedious method than the customarily used NORMAL method [NORMAL, Dosaggio dei Sali Solubili, CNR-ICR, Roma, Italy (1983) 13/83]. For extraction in aqueous medium, the latter method requires shaking for 72 h at a temperature of 60°C. Our aim is to attempt to shorten this time to less than 1 h using ultrasound. sults of the present study indicate that there is a good correlation between the amount of salts extracted applying the method described in the NORMAL (1983) normative and the amounts extracted with the method proposed here, subjecting the material to ultrasound (50 KHz) for 45 min.