Thermoanalytical contribution to the study on paper degradation. Characterisation of oxidised paper

In this paper we studied the effect of oxidation on paper stability by mean s of simultaneous differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetry. In ou r laboratory we oxidised Whatman n. 1 chromatography grade paper and perfor med thermal analyses both on non-oxidised and on 6, 21 and 96 h oxidised sa mples. The results showed characteristic thermal effects, particularly perf orming the experiments under oxygen flow: it was noticed that the temperatu re of the main cellulose degradation DTA peak gradually decreases with the paper oxidation degree. An application of this method was extended to the s tudy of differently oxidised parts of a 1948's book.