A COMPARATIVE STUDY TO EVALUATE CONVENTIONAL AND NONCONVENTIONAL CLEANING TREATMENTS OF CELLULOSIC PAPER SUPPORTS

Aqueous cleaning of ancient paper samples is a common treatment for the removal of degradation products, external contaminants and salts, which can cause degradation of cellulose by hydrolysis or oxidation processes. The present study examined the influence of selected cleaning treatments on chemical properties of some historical paper samples and studying the efficiency of cleaning methods in removing of degradation products. It also investigated the effects of five different cleaning treatments, namely immersion in deionized water, akapad paper sponge, hydro gellan gum, Cellulose nano Crystal gel and cleaning with wolbers solvent gels on ancient cellulosic paper supports. In particular, the effect of the cleaning treatments on different properties of cellulosic paper supports, namely colorimetric properties (CIE L*a*b* coordinates), crystallinity index (X-Ray diffraction), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and pH (cold- extraction method), were investigated. The study concluded that all cleaning treatments affected the colorimetric properties of the selected paper samples.