Assessment of volatile emissions by aging books

Indoor air quality (IAQ) has attracted a lot of attention due to its complexity and direct effect on human health. Indoor settings in libraries entail various volatile organic compounds (VOCs) linked to the aging and degradation of print material. The effect of the storage environment on paper life expectancy was investigated by targeting the VOC emissions of old and new books using headspace solid phase micro extraction-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC/MS) analysis. "Sniffing" of book degradation markers showed both ubiquitously and infrequently occurring VOCs. Old book "degradomics" revealed mostly alcohols (57%) and ethers (12%), whereas new books resulted mainly to ketones (40%) and aldehydes (21%). Chemometric processing of the results with principal component analysis (PCA) corroborated our initial observations and was able to discriminate the books by age into three groups: very old books (from the 1600 s to mid-1700), old books (from the 1800s to the early 1900s), and modern books (from the mid-twentieth century onwards) based on their gaseous markers. The measured mean concentrations of selected VOCs (acetic acid, furfural, benzene, and toluene) were below the respective guidelines set for similar places (i.e. museums). The applied non-invasive, green analytical methodology (HS-SPME-GC/MS) can assist librarians, stakeholders, and researchers to evaluate the IAQ, as well as the degree of degradation, and take the appropriate measures for book restoration and monitoring protocols.