De-acidification neutralizes acidic paper but does not strengthen deteriorated paper. Other than paper splitting and lamination, there has been no major advance in paper strengthening. In the early 1980s, the American Nova Tran Corporation conducted experiments with parylene, a coating developed for electronic equipment, but the high cost of the process renders it impractical for mass use. In the late 1980s, the British Library began paper strengthening experiments with a graft polymerization process that seemed promising but does not seem to have developed beyond the experimental stage

The ZFB company of Leipzig has successfully mechanized a manual paper-splitting process used by bookbinders for more than 150 years (http://www.zfb.com). This process splits a sheet of deteriorated paper in two between glued rollers. A strengthening layer is inserted between the two halves, which are then fused. This process does not noticeably affect the appearance of the paper.