alcohol has a much lower surface tension than water, so therefore it
penetrates paper very easy. It is often used to "get" water into a surface
where water alone will not wet it. Mix a little alcohol in water and the
water will wet heavily sized paper more easy (in a shorter time). So one
can also use alcohol/water mixtures as a vehicle to get stuff into paper,
or rinse it out of paper when the substrate (paper) reacts difficult on
water alone. Also one can use detergents to achieve this but sometimes
detergents will counteract the envisioned goal (is this understandable
english?). Hypoclearing is done with detergents, they will "carry" the
salts out of the paper by lowering the surface tension (amongst other
processes).
surface tension of water 73 10[-3] Nm[-1] [ ] =to the power of
surface tension of ethanol 22
surface tension of ether 17
surface tension of silicone oil 16
Bas
Jonge Eland papierrestauratie
eland@knoware.nl
t +31 20 623 79 89
f +31 20 627 32 23
VeRes (Dutch Association of Professional Restorers)
postbus 11503
1001 GM Amsterdam
PAPER IS ART IS PAPER IS ART IS PAPER IS ART IS PAPER IS ART IS PAPER