I'm a paper conservator in private practice and so I don't have access to all the equipment and supplies I should have. I am interested in making small quantities of chlorine dioxide to bleach paper documents as I work with some fragile documents that cannot be bleached through aqueous methods but only by vapour/gas treatments and I am only aware of chlorine dioxide as the only form of a gaseous bleach. I can build a safe plexiglass housing so I don't poison myself (or others) but I was thinking of doing some "kitchen chemistry" and mixing sodium hypochlorite and vinegar to produce the chlorine gas I am after. My question(s) are: what is the potential for explosive hazards (i.e at what concentration does chlorine dioxide gas explode), what quantities of each constituent do I need to produce enough chlorine gas to bleach a document that is 8 1/2 X 10 1/4 in a chamber of roughly 20X24X4? How do I neutralize the mixture after I'm done (add water?) I'm not 100% committed to the idea of using chlorine dioxide, but it would make bleaching (and treatment) of certain objects a lot easier....
