Permanent Characteristics of the Handsheet Mixed with Hemp Bast Fiber

Despite the ubiquity of electronic media, paper is still the most generally readable carrier of information. Because paper materials are deteriorated by chemical, biological and physical factors over time, there have been major concerns about the decay of large collections of books, publications, old maps, historical artifacts, and written records. Therefore, manufacture of permanent paper has been a highly debated issue in paper conservation research. Through the use of permanent paper, our new records, journals, library books, art works, and all culturally and historically important documents can be preserved. In this study, handsheets were made of mixture of hemp bast fiber produced by soda pulping and HwBKP varying the amount of hemp. Physical, mechanical and optical properties of each handsheet were examined. As the ratio of hemp bast fiber increased, mechanical properties were improved significantly, but opacity decreased. After aging, the optical properties of the handsheets mixed with the hemp bast fiber more decreased than those of the non-mixed handsheet. The more mixture ratio of hemp bast fiber increased, the more decreasing rate of optical properties increased. As a result, it was confirmed that hemp bast fiber is a very promising resource for the manufacturing of permanent paper.