Oxidative degradation of paper – A minireview

Paper is still the most important carrier of information and knowledge in the form of books, journals, documents of historical value located in libraries and archives. Being a material of biomass origin it is subject to chemical, physical and biological degradation. For many decades it has been accepted that the main factor contributing to the paper degradation is acid hydrolysis and several modes of deacidification have been elaborated and successfully applied to paper aimed at slowing down its degradation and preserving its quality. A less attention has been devoted to oxidative modes of paper degradation. This minireview is focused just on these modes. In particular, oxidation involving reactive oxygen species and reactions catalyzed by transition metals species are dealt with. Oxidation of paper induced by iron-gall inks in documents of historical value is discussed in more detail due to importance of such documents as part of cultural heritage of mankind.