A.J. Palumbo Research Grant recipient Julie Smyder, who graduated in May, provided the following statement about the project she presented at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in San Diego last March, "As Fascinating as Watching Paint Dry."

"For centuries, artists have made use of the oxidation-polymerization process that occurs in ‘drying oils’ such as linseed oil. Paintings have been subjected to damaging conditions and cleaning procedures simply because no one knew any better. In order to preserve and protect an artist’s work, it is important to fully understand the chemistry involved in the ongoing process of drying oil paint films. My experiments, based on the research of Dr. Marion Mecklenburg and Dr. Charles Tumosa of the Smithsonian Institute, attempted to address some facets of this problem. Insight may be gained into the process by using gas-phase IR spectroscopy to study the volatile products (including CO2, water, and low molecular weight aliphatic acids, alcohols and aldehydes) released from pure oils early in the drying reaction and by monitoring the mass changes that occur in the samples (and similar samples of pigmented oils, and mixed paints) as they polymerize."