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Degradation product emission from historic and modern books by headspace SPME/GC–MS: evaluation of lipid oxidation and cellulose hydrolysis

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Abstract

Volatile organic compounds emitted from a several decade series of bound periodicals (1859–1939) printed on ground wood paper, as well as historical books dating from the 1500s to early 1800s made from cotton/linen rag, were studied using an improved headspace SPME/GC–MS method. The headspace over the naturally aging books, stored upright in glass chambers, was monitored over a 24-h period, enabling the identification of a wide range of organic compounds emanating from the whole of the book. The detection of particular straight chain aldehydes, as well as characteristic alcohols, alkenes and ketones is correlated with oxidative degradation of the C18 fatty acid constituency of paper. The relative importance of hydrolytic and oxidative chemistry involved in paper aging in books published between 1560 and 1939 was examined by comparing the relative abundances of furfural (FUR) a known cellulose hydrolysis product, and straight chain aldehydes (SCA) produced from the oxidation of fatty acids in paper. The relative abundance of furfural is shown to increase across the 379-year publication time span. A comparison of relative SCA peak areas across the series of books examined reveals that SCA emission is more important in the cotton/linen rag books than in the ground wood books.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Dean’s Research Fund of Pepperdine University and the Tooma Undergraduate Research Fellowship. We are grateful for the loan of the historic books from Pepperdine University’s Special Collections and Archives, and for the assistance of Melissa Nykanen, Special Collections librarian. Special thanks are due to Nathan Fuller for conducting some of the experiments and Prof. Jim White for helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, 90263, USA

    Andrew J. Clark, Jesse L. Calvillo, David B. Green & Jane A. Ganske

  2. Dean of Libraries, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, 90263, USA

    Mark S. Roosa

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  1. Andrew J. Clark
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  2. Jesse L. Calvillo
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  3. Mark S. Roosa
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  4. David B. Green
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  5. Jane A. Ganske
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Correspondence to Jane A. Ganske.

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Clark, A.J., Calvillo, J.L., Roosa, M.S. et al. Degradation product emission from historic and modern books by headspace SPME/GC–MS: evaluation of lipid oxidation and cellulose hydrolysis. Anal Bioanal Chem 399, 3589–3600 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-4680-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-4680-5

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