Cellulose Acetate Lamination: A Literature Review and Survey of Paper-Based Collections in the United States

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Cellulose acetate (CA) lamination, a technique to strengthen documents by sealing them between sheets of thermoplastic film, was widespread from the 1930s to the 1990s. Its use gradually stopped in the 1980s amid concerns about the physical and chemical instability of the laminate and the degradation risks posed to the treated document. Despite concerns about CA lamination, no coordinated effort has taken place to establish the various materials and techniques used in cellulose acetate laminations or to determine the number and present condition of CA laminated documents in US collections. In this paper, we review the chemistry and methods used in CA lamination. We then report results of a survey of 52 US institutions with significant laminated collections. We find that at least 2.9 million laminated documents exist in US collections, and most of those documents are observed to be in stable condition. A majority of the institutions used cellulose diacetate (CDA) as the laminating film and as few as 0.6% CDA laminated documents have been delaminated. The results should aid institutions in determining the cost benefit in the management of these significant collections.</jats:p>

First-Principles Model to Evaluate Quantitatively the Long-Life Behavior of Cellulose Acetate Polymers

“…Scheme 2 is the proposed mechanism for the reaction in an acidic medium. McGath et al 10 presented a similar mechanism; however, in this work, the steps of protonation are disregarded since these steps are very quick with low energy barriers in comparison to that of the dissociation of the CO double bond as well as the detaching of the acetyl group.…”

“…Some studies have been performed to understand the degradation pathways and the factors involved in the degradation of CA items. , It is now known that deacetylation under neutral and acid-catalyzed conditions are the two primary degradation mechanism. However, CA degradation depends on extrinsic factors like temperature, relative humidity (RH), and pH of the surrounding environment and on intrinsic factors related to the material composition (degree of substitution (DS) of acetyl groups, presence of other compoundsmanufacturing residues, plasticizers, additives).…”

Archival performance of paper as affected by chemical components: A Review

“…Fragile paper artifacts are often strengthened by adding supplementary layers of papersometimes called secondary supports. Through the history of conservation and restoration, there have been non-cellulose based secondary supports such as silk or cellulose acetate films, but these materials have all been demonstrated to age more rapidly than the historic paper they are meant to support (Wang and Wong 2019;McGath et al 2015). Secondary support methods include localized mending (often called tear repair), overall lining (adhering a sheet of paper to the back of the artifact), laminating (adhering the artifact between two thin layers of paper), paper splitting (splitting the artifact in two, and inserting a central paper core), or a process called leafcasting (forming a thin mat of pulp fibers either over the entire sheet, or concentrating the pulp deposition to infill areas of loss) (Bansa and Ishii 1997;Hajji et al 2016;Santos et al 2016;Bedenikovic et al 2018a;BPG Lining 2022).…”

Polyvinylpyrrolidone/cellulose acetate electrospun composite nanofibres loaded by glycerine and garlic extract within vitroantibacterial activity and release behaviour test

“…CA is an ester of cellulose and acetic acid, which has been traditionally applied for lamination. 49 In biomedical applications, CA has been used in tissue engineering, nutraceutical delivery, crop protection, cigarette filters, and antimicrobial mats. 41 Similar to PVP, CA is also non-toxic and biocompatible.…”