MASS DEACIDIFICATION: AN INITIATIVE TO REFINE THE DIETHYL ZINC PROCESS

Table of Contents

Section 1:
Summary, Introduction, Background, DEZ Refinement Effort

Section 2:
Project Chronology, Miscellaneous Observations, Advantages & Disadvantages, Conclusions, Future of DEZ Technology

Section 3:
Conservator's Report

Section 4:
Technical Summary of the Library of Congress DEZ Book Deacidification Process

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the cooperation and assistance of Tom Albro, John Bertonaschi, Martha-Lucia Sierra, and Terry Wallis, conservators who served on a panel that was responsible primarily for conducting an odor evaluation of selected books from each DEZ test run. Paul Gray assisted Ms. Sierra with the selection and transportation of test books to the Akzo facility. Ms. Sierra participated actively in many aspects of the DEZ initiative and did much to facilitate the project, including the preparation of books for evaluation by assessment panels. We are grateful to the Library managers who agreed to serve on a Management Mass Deacidification Assessment Panel that met several times to evaluate the extent of acceptability of treated books.

The Library is particularly indebted to Sylvia Subt, John Koloski, and James R. Bond of the Government Printing Office for undertaking scanning electron microscopy of DEZ-treated coated papers, and to Professor David Hoffman, University of Houston, and Professor Klaus Theopold, University of Delaware, for undertaking important laboratory-scale experiments that provided new insights.

Identified in the Appendix are consultants and LC staff members who participated actively on a technical team that provided excellent guidance for this R&D effort. A few of the consultants, particularly George (Larry) Eitel, a chemical engineer, played an active role in assisting with the planning of individual test runs, along with the Akzo engineer, Mildred Jeffery, whose cooperation and knowledge of plant operations were key elements in the success of this project.