deacidification
n.
A preservation technique intended to increase the longevity of paper documents by raising the pH to at least 7.0, and often including the deposit of an alkaline buffer.
Notes
Aqueous deacidification uses water as the solvent carrier of the alkaline agent. Nonaqueous deacidification uses organic solvents as the solvent carrier. Vapor phase deacidification involves the interleaving of documents and the pages of volumes with treated sheets that emit an alkaline vapor; now rarely used because it reportedly produces toxic vapors and does not leave an alkaline reserve. Mass deacidification refers to one of various techniques designed to treat large numbers of documents at one time with either gaseous or liquid agents.
