Inorganic nanomaterials for the deacidification of paper

The conservation of manuscript and books is one of most difficult issue in conservation science, because the organic biomolecule of cellulose is susceptible to fast degradation as a result of the combination of the environmental factors and the papermaking techniques used during the century. Basically, paper undergoes degradation because paper contains materials that catalyse the degradation reactions; this fact is added to the intrinsic weakness of the organic-based materials. The chapter focuses on some of these aspects and, in particular, deepens the role of acidity in the degradation processes. This conceptual framework permit to better highlight the recent important contribution of nanotechnology to the development of innovative deacidification methods.