Possibility of removing residual optical brightening agents in paper-based cultural artefacts contaminated with offset OBAs.

This study explores the possibility of removing residual optical brighteners in paper, caused by the migration of OBAs from commercially available papers through water during an instance of water damage. From the standpoint of conservation treatment, this OBA removal experiment was conducted in the hope of providing a treatment method for the removal of OBAs as a reference point for the conservation community. This study presents an example case of removing offset OBAs, and the results of the removal experiment are discussed in order to explore the feasibility of the proposed treatment method. The results demonstrated that the removal of offset OBAs using a compatible conservation treatment is feasible. A combination of daylight bleaching with alkaline water and aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution is recommended, and the time of exposure to sunlight should be shortened as much as possible if performed on a bright, sunny day. However, performing such treatment on the actual cultural artefact will require careful assessment with regards to necessity and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]