Several scientists in the world are working hard to produce a so-called "Nanopaper". The prefix "nano" means that the fibres used are measured in nanometers (10^-9 m, or 1 millionth of a mm) instead of millimetres and centimetres. The process used to make it is the same as our everyday paper but the raw material it is made from is not the usual paper pulp.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientist Jing Kong, one of the researchers involved into the development of the paper claims that the paper can be cut and print just like any ordinary paper. The raw material used is not cellulose but potassium manganese oxide nanofibrils.

The interesting thing about this paper is, that when coated with a special polymer it is capable of absorbing oil and could be used to clean up oil spills after environmental accidents.

The researchers are planning to develop the paper commercially and it is expected to cost less than 5 US dollar a kg.

A group of other scientists, amongst others from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and the Faculty of Engineering in Kobe, Japan have developed a Nanopaper using cellulose as initial raw material. They broke it down with enzymes, treated it and made paper out of it. The result is a paper that is about 7 times as strong as normal wood pulp paper.

Imagine this new paper becoming readily available for printing. What would be its effect on paper mills, publishing and printing companies? Would we finally have a paper that withstands time?, a permanent paper for archival collections and printed works of art? Is this paper biodegradable or could it become another environmental problem? Well I cannot answer the questions, because at this time there is few information available about its resistance to chemicals, pollution, biological and other deteriorating influences.

To us conservators the development of such a kind of paper should be good news. In the end it might provide us more time to read the books instead of having to conserve them :-)

Publication:

Henriksson Marielle and all, Cellulose Nanopaper Structures of High Toughness, American Chemical Society, Biomacromolecules 2008, vol 9, pp.1579-1585.