Acid-free paper Acid-free paper Acid-free paper is paper that if infused in water yields a neutral or basic pH (7 or slightly greater). It can be made from any cellulose fiber as long as the active acid pulp is eliminated during processing. It is also lignin- and sulfur-free. Acid-free paper addresses the problem of preserving documents and artwork for long periods. Paper made from wood-based pulp that has not had its lignin removed turns yellow, becomes brittle, and deteriorates over time. When exposed to light and/or heat, the molecules in the acidic paper will break down even faster. Acidic wood-pulp paper became
PH from aqueous pH values, because activities relate to different standard states. Hydrogen ion activity, "a", can be defined as: where "μ" is the chemical potential of the hydrogen ion, formula_9 is its chemical potential in the chosen standard state, "R" is the gas constant and "T" is the thermodynamic temperature. Therefore, pH values on the different scales cannot be compared directly due to different solvated proton ions such as lyonium ions, requiring an intersolvent scale which involves the transfer activity coefficient of hydronium/lyonium ion. pH is an example of an acidity function. Other acidity functions can be defined. For example,