Adhesive Mixtures as Sacrificial Substrates in Paper Aging

Abstract

Paper aging is an irreversible process leading to the degradation of paper-based materials. Apart from the chemical degradation occurring due to natural aging, paper can also suffer from much more severe and rapid damage by vandalism or fire. If fire occurs in a storage place of cultural heritage materials (e.g. in libraries), it may lead to an irreversible loss of a great portion of valuable information. After a disastrous fire in the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany, the local conservation team invented a process to conserve the impaired pieces of the collection. The optimized procedure utilizes multicomponent adhesive mixtures, which help to consolidate the damaged paper materials. In the present study, the long-term stability of the adhesive mixture was evaluated in combination with paper (posttreatment) as well as for the individual components after exposure to thermally induced aging. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analysis of the blend constituents and paper samples demonstrated that application of the adhesives improves the paper stability against the aging processes. The mixture components were observed to react as sacrificial substrates preserving cellulose chains in paper from degradation. The treatment was also shown to slightly increase the hydrophobicity of the paper samples. Paper UV–Vis analysis revealed a minor discoloration caused by the application of the mixtures which, considering the obvious improvements in paper stability after the treatment, should not be regarded as a severe drawback.

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