(Photo Credit: pet-rubber-duck)

Books, Books, Books! They are something we cannot do without – be it in leisure (novels, magazines, etc), academic (school textbooks, revision books, workbooks, etc) or self-improvement (motivation, self-development, etc).

Even with the advance of technology, the kindle, the ipad, the macbook, the netbook, etc – we all still need and want books.

In fact there is a group of people that simply love old books. They love the smell, feel and look (usually torn and with dark brown patches) of these old books – usually fragile and tattered.

Now, what causes the book to turn brown, black and fragile? We need to studyinto the manufacturing of papers before they are imprinted with words and binded into books.

Chemistry Concepts behind the Fragile Looks of Old Books:

During paper manufacturing, the chemical Aluminium Sulfate is often used to treat the papers, before they are imprinted with words and binded into books.

Over time, the aluminium ions (due to dissociation from aluminium sulfate) in the paper will react with moisture in the air to produce Hydrogen Ions (H⁺).

These hydrogen ions break down the Cellulose in the paper (paper is organic in nature and made of cellulose) and make the paper brittle. This is the reason why the pages in old books become very fragile after long use.

Now, can we do something to slow down the rate of the papers of old books becoming fragile? ie, can we slow down the rate of reaction – can we slow down the rate of formation of

(Photo credit: mandy&john)

Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions & Processes are commonly observed in our everyday life.

These energy changes are either occurring naturally (combustion/burning, photosynthesis, respiration, boiling, freezing, etc) or being employed by mankind to make our lives better through its numerous application.

One of the most common application is the use of Cold Packs in our daily lives.

When you have a headache, applying a cold pack relieve the pain. Most of the commercially available cold packs contain chemicals which take in heat when they react. This is why cold packs causes a cooling effect on their person’s head and temporarily relieve the pain.

Chemistry Concepts behind the Use of Cold Packs:

What really happens is that when the cold pack is used, the chemicals inside the pack are made to react with each other and this reaction (i call this the SYSTEM) is highly Endothermic in nature – heat energy is taken into the SYSTEM from the SURROUNDING. The SURROUNDING in this case is the