上海科學家研發防水耐火紙 有助紙質文物保存

In January 2015, a fire in one of Russia's largest university libraries damaged more than 1 million historical documents, an incident which some media described as a "cultural Chernobyl".

2015年1月，俄羅斯最大的大學圖書館之一發生了火災，損壞了100多萬本歷史文獻，一些媒體將這一事件描述爲“文化切爾諾貝利”。

Important documents of our age can probably avoid the same fate in the future thanks to a new fire-resistant paper developed by a team of scientists at the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

我們這個時代的重要文獻在將來可能能夠避免同樣的命運，因爲中科院上海陶瓷研究所一隊科學家發明了一種新型耐火紙。

Zhu Yingjie, a researcher from the institute, and his team developed a set of methods to produce paper with a new material, hydroxyapatite, the inorganic constituent of tooth enamel and bone.

該研究所的研究員朱英傑和其團隊成功研發出了一套方法，用一種名叫羥基磷灰石的新材料來造紙，羥基磷灰石是牙釉質和骨的無機成分。

The inorganic material is both fire resistant and water resistant.

這種無機材料既耐火又防水。

"Traditionally, paper is made of plant fibers, which are easily destroyed by liquid. Previous research attempts to produce waterproof paper found it was difficult to achieve fire retardancy and water repellency at the same time," Zhu said.

朱英傑說道：“傳統上，紙是由植物纖維製成的，很容易被液體破壞。在以往試圖研究製造防水紙的過程中，人們發現很難同時實現防水和耐火。”

In 2013, a doctorate student of Zhu was preparing hydroxyapatite nanowires. While he wanted to filter out the water and continue the experiment, he found that instead of getting hydroxyapatite powder on the filter paper, a film formed on the paper.

2013年，朱英傑一名博士學生在準備羥基磷灰石奈米線。當他想過濾掉水繼續試驗的時候，他發現留在過濾紙上的不是羥基磷灰石粉末，而是形成了一張薄膜。

The discovery inspired Zhu. He conducted more experiments to improve the material's physical properties.

這一發現啓發了朱英傑。他進行了更多的實驗來改善這一材料的物理性能。

"Traditional papermaking damages natural woods and damages the environment. Hydroxyapatite nanowires are an ideal building material for paper," Zhu said.

朱英傑說道：“傳統造紙方法會損害天然木材、破壞自然環境。羥基磷灰石奈米線是一種理想的造紙材料。”