| Abstract: | CONCLUSION. Regardless of the fact that there has been a lot of research invested in studies of degradation of cellulose and paper, a number of knowledge gaps still exist. There is a need for improvement of analytical methods, many of which have been unchallenged and used continuously for many decades. A number of contemporary analytical methods deserve to be employed more frequently, especially spectroscopic, e.g. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman, but also IR, especially in combination with more advanced sampling techniques, and mass spectroscopy. Imaging techniques should also deserve our increased attention, particularly those with high spatial resolution. The research into accelerated ageing and degradation mechanisms also deserves more attention. Especially the time-demanding and work-intensive Arrhenius studies should be performed more often and at lower temperatures. The relationship between stack- and loose-sheet ageing should be elucidated. Finally, if experiments at a single temperature are performed, standard ageing conditions should be used to ensure the comparability of different studies. |
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