Title
Ultrasound-assisted deacidification of aged paper using borates
Authors
TAN WEI PAN YUNTING LIN YINTAO CHENG LIFEN and FANG YANXIONG

Received October 9, 2015
Published Volume 51 Issue 9-10 September-December
Keywords paper, lithium tetraborate, potassium tetraborate, deacidification, ultrasound (US), mechanical properties

Abstract
As a paper deacidification agent, borax has been used in ancient paper protection. In order to study the deacidification effects of borax compounds, a series of paper immersion experiments have been done. The pH, whiteness and strength of treated paper were investigated. The results showed that lithium tetraborate and potassium tetraborate can not only maintain the pH in a proper range, but also strengthen the mechanical parameters of paper, and have similar deacidification effects to those of borax. The effect of lithium tetraborate was slightly better than those of potassium tetraborate and borax. Ultrasonic technology was applied to assist deacidification of ancient paper with the mentioned deacidification agents. SEM and FTIR analyses were carried out to analyze the damage of paper. The results indicated that the deacidification time decreased due to the effects of the mechanical action and cavitation of ultrasounds, and the ultrasound-assisted deacidification did not affect the properties of the paper.