Abstract
Paper materials for long term conservation suffer slowly mechanical and chemical deterioration, the extent of which may depend upon their conservation environment. Those deterioration includes discoloring, low moisture content, acidification, and brittleness. To slow deterioration, washing treatment, deacidification, and polymer reinforcement on paper materials are usually used. One easy and simple method of fixing low moisture content and acidification was an washing method, and we used both distilled and alkali water in washing method in this study. Alkali water is electrolyzed cathode water of high pH, and has no alkali metal ions in it. Experiment showed that washing treatment with both distilled and alkali water gave improvement in raising moisture content, pH, and mechanical strength of paper materials even after severe accelerated aging test. Advantageous effect of alkali water over distilled water on preventing deterioation was also shown clearly.