Consolidation of the Paper Works with Cellulose Nanofibers

: Consolidation is considered as an important step in the conservation of cultural and historical documents and books and the main purpose is to emphasize the strength of the paper support. Consolidant materials are used in the restoration of paper cultural heritage in order to improve the strength of the paper structure, which has decreased due to the passage of time and also the impact of environmental factors. Paper works are gradually degraded by various destructive factors due to their structural properties. For this reason, it is necessary to applying consolidation treatments for strengthening of degraded paper. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effect of cellulose nanofibers and its use as a consolidant agent to restore durability to paper works. In this study, to consolidation of the paper, cellulose nanofibers with a concentration of 1% by weight were prepared as a suspension with water and used to treat the samples. In order to evaluate the effect of treatment, the samples were exposed to dry-heat and moist-heat aging and pH, colorimetric, and tensile strength tests were performed before and after aging. The results showed that the pH of the samples increased after treatment with cellulose nanofibers. After dry-heat and moist-heat aging, the pH of the samples decreased slightly. Cellulose nanofiber treatment increased the tensile strength of the samples. However, after two stages of aging, the tensile strength of the samples has decreased compared to the previous stage. The use of cellulose nanofiber treatment made the color of the samples brighter but after aging, the brightness of the samples decreased.