• Cadmium red
• Linseed oil
• Lipid binders
• Mass spectrometry
• Methyl esters
• Methyl linoleate
• Methyl linolenate
• Safflower oil
• Thermoanalytical techniques

The target of the thesis is to unravel how cadmium red influences the curing of an oil paint. Oil paint is a form of a slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a vegetable drying oil that forms a solid elastic film upon exposure to air. Linseed oil is one of the most common oils used since the antiquity and generates stable and resistant films, but the main drawback of this oil is that this films tent to yellow with ageing. Because of this, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the artists started to use new types of oils, such as safflower oil, which is a semi-drying oil. At the molecular level, methyl esters are simpler than triglycerides and for this reason the mass spectral features of compounds produced upon its curing are significantly simplified. To achieved the target, mass spectrometry and thermoanalytical techniques have been used. Cadmium red is a mineral inorganic pigment and is a solid solution of sulfur and selenium.