1. Assessing Fire-Damage in Historical Papers and Alleviating Damage with Soft Cellulose Nanofibers.
- Author
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Völkel L, Beaumont M, Johansson LS, Czibula C, Rusakov D, Mautner A, Teichert C, Kontturi E, Rosenau T, and Potthast A
- Subjects
- Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions, Porosity, Water, Cellulose chemistry, Nanofibers chemistry
- Abstract
The conservation of historical paper objects with high cultural value is an important societal task. Papers that have been severely damaged by fire, heat, and extinguishing water, are a particularly challenging case, because of the complexity and severity of damage patterns. In-depth analysis of fire-damaged papers, by means of examples from the catastrophic fire in a 17th-century German library, shows the changes, which proceeded from the margin to the center, to go beyond surface charring and formation of hydrophobic carbon-rich layers. The charred paper exhibits structural changes in the nano- and micro-range, with increased porosity and water sorption. In less charred areas, cellulose is affected by both chain cleavage and cross-linking. Based on these results and conclusions with regard to adhesion of auxiliaries, a stabilization method is developed, which coats the damaged paper with a thin layer of cellulose nanofibers. It enables the reliable preservation of the paper and-most importantly-retrieval of the contained historical information: the nanofibers form a flexible, transparent film on the surface and adhere strongly to the damaged matrix, greatly reducing its fragility, giving it stability, and enabling digitization and further handling., (© 2022 The Authors. Small published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.)
- Published
- 2022
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