Characterization of historical brick and mortar materials from the former San Francisco Church in Intramuros, Manila

• Main Author: Bermejo, Arturo F.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Brick churches > Philippines; Church buildings > Philippines; Engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2961
• Institution: De La Salle University

A brick with mortar sample was obtained from the San Francisco Church's foundation and representative portions (BR1, BR2, BR3, BR4, MO1, MO2, and MO3) of the sample were utilized for chemical analysis using specific analytical instruments during the process of characterization. The EDXRF was utilized for the component analysis where the 3:1 ratio of sand to clay was determined to compose the historic bricks and a 3:1 lime to sand ratio composes lime mortars and was also classified as calcareous. SEM on the other hand was used for the morphological assessment of the samples which provided information on the firing temperature (1100 °C) and vitrification of bricks, and the secondary recrystallization, type of slaking and presence of salts in lime mortars. An FTIR analysis was also conducted after the extraction of organic solvents to determine the composition and presence of proteinaceous materials in the samples which showed no presence of proteins. Qualitative tests including the Xanthoproteic test, Ninhydrin test and Biuret test were also conducted together with protein assays which include the Biuret assay and Bradford assay. All the tests under the qualitative tests and protein assay were unable to detect any presence of proteins in the samples.