| 1. |
- Ankerfors, Mikael
(author)
-
Microfibrillated cellulose : Energy-efficient preparation techniques and key properties
- 2012
-
Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This work describes three alternative processes for producing microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) in which pulp fibres are first pre-treated and then homogenized using a high-pressure homogenizer. In one process, fibre cell wall delamination was facilitated with a combined enzymatic and mechanical pre-treatment. In the two other processes, cell wall delamination was facilitated by pre-treatments that introduced anionically charged groups into the fibre wall, by means of either a carboxymethylation reaction or irreversibly attaching carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) onto the fibres. All three processes are industrially feasible and enable production with low energy consumption. Using these methods, MFC can be produced with an energy consumption of 500–2300 kWh/tonne, which corresponds to a 91–98% reduction in energy consumption from that presented in earlier studies. These materials have been characterized in various ways and it has been demonstrated that the produced MFCs are approximately 5–30 nm wide and up to several microns long.
|
|
| 2. |
- Aulin, Christian, 1980-
(author)
-
Novel oil resistant cellulosic materials
- 2009
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this study has been to prepare and characterise oil resistant cellulosic materials, ranging from model surfaces to papers and aerogels. The cellulosic materials were made oil resistant by chemical and topographic modifications, based on surface energy, surface roughness and barrier approaches. Detailed wetting studies of the prepared cellulosic materials were made using contact angle measurements and standardised penetration tests with different alkanes and oil mixtures. A significant part of the activities were devoted to the development of model cellulosic surfaces with different degrees of crystalline ordering for the wetting studies. Crystalline cellulose I, II and amorphous cellulose surfaces were prepared by spin-coating of cellulose nanocrystal or microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) dispersions, with Langmuir-Schaefer (LS) films or by a layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition technique. The formation of multilayers consisting of polyethyleneimine (PEI)/anionic MFC or cationic MFC/anionic MFC was further studied and optimized in terms of total layer thickness and adsorbed amount by combining Dual Polarization Interferometry (DPI) or Stagnation Point Adsorption Reflectrometry (SPAR) with a Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation (QCM-D). The smooth cellulosic surfaces prepared had different molecular and mesostructure properties and different surface energies as shown by X-ray diffraction, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) imaging, ellipsometry measurements and contact angle measurements. The cellulose model surfaces were found to be ideal for detailed wetting studies, and after the surface has been coated or covalently modified with various amounts of fluorosurfactants, the fluorinated cellulose films were used to follow the spreading mechanisms of different oil mixtures. The viscosity and surface tension of the oil mixtures, as well as the dispersive surface energy of the cellulose surfaces, were found to be essential parameters governing the spreading kinetics. A strong correlation was found between the surface concentration of fluorine, the dispersive surface energy and the measured contact angle of the oil mixtures. Silicon surfaces possessing structural porous characteristics were fabricated by a plasma etching process. The structured silicon surfaces were coated with sulfate-stabilized cellulose I nanocrystals using the LbL technique. These artificial intrinsically oleophilic cellulose surfaces were made highly oleophobic when coated with a thin layer of fluorinated silanes. By comparison with flat cellulose surfaces, which are oleophilic, it is demonstrated that the surface energy and the surface texture are essential factors preventing oil from spreading on the surface and, thus, inducing the observed macroscopic oleophobic properties. The use of the MFC for surface coating on base papers demonstrated very promising characteristics as packaging materials. Environmental-Scanning Electron Microscopy (E-SEM) micrographs indicated that the MFC layer reduced the sheet porosity, i.e. the dense structure formed by the nanofibers resulted in superior oil barrier properties. Attempts were made to link the procedure for preparation of the MFC dispersions to the resulting microstructure of the coatings, and film porosity and the film moisture content to the resulting permeability properties. Finally, MFC aerogels were successfully prepared by freeze-drying. The surface texture of the porous aerogels was carefully controlled by adjusting the concentration of the MFC dispersion used for the freeze-drying. The different scales of roughness of the MFC aerogels were utilised, together with the very low surface energy created by fluorination of the aerogel, to induce highly oleophobic properties.
|
|
| 3. |
- Forsström, Jennie, 1975-
(author)
-
Fundamental Aspects on the Re-use of Wood Based Fibres : Porous Structure of Fibres and Ink Detachment
- 2004
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this work, different aspects on the re-use of wood based fibres have been studied, focusing on ink detachment of flexographic ink from model cellulose surfaces and changes in porous structure of kraft fibres following different treatments. New model systems for evaluation of ink detachment and ink-cellulose interactions were used. Ink detachment was studied using Impinging jet cell equipment, taking into consideration the influence of storage conditions, surface roughness and surface energy of the cellulose substrate. A micro adhesion measurement apparatus (MAMA) was used to directly study ink-cellulose interactions, from which the adhesive properties between ink and cellulose, having various surface energies, could be derived. UV-light, elevated temperatures, longer storage time, decreased surface energy, i.e. making the cellulose surface more hydrophobic, and high surface roughness all negatively affected ink detachment. Attenuated total reflectance - fourier transform infra red (ATR-FTIR) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to evaluate structural and chemical changes of ink and cellulose upon storage at elevated temperature or under UV-light. After storage at elevated temperatures, ATR-FTIR spectra indicated that a hydrolysis or an oxidative reaction took place as a peak at 1710 cm-1 appeared. AFM revealed that storage at elevated temperatures caused the latex particles present in the ink to form a film, most likely due to annealing. Less ink detached from hydrophobic cellulose surfaces. Ink detachment decreased for rougher cellulose substrates due to an increased molecular contact area.Fibre pore structure and water retaining ability influenced fibre/fibre joint strength and different paper strength properties. Investigations took into account the effect of pulp yield, counter-ion types, pH, salt, hornification and strength enhancing additives. Nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation (NMR), inverse size exclusion chromatography (ISEC) and water retention value (WRV) measured the changes that occur in the fibre wall upon varying the conditions. Each different measuring technique contained unique information such that a combination of the techniques was necessary to give as complete a picture as possible over the changes that occurred in the fibre wall upon varying the conditions for the fibre. A correlation between fibre pore radius and sheet strength properties was found, suggesting that fibres with larger pores allow for a larger molecular contact area between fibres to be formed during drying and consolidation of the paper. Fibre/fibre joint strength, fibre flexibility, and the number of efficient fibre/fibre contacts also controlled sheet strength. The effect of different strength enhancing additives on fibre pore structure and paper strength was investigated. Larger pores in the fibres allowed for additives to penetrate into the fibre wall. Additives with low molecular mass (Mw) penetrated into the fibre wall to a larger extent than additives with a high Mw, causing an embrittlement of the fibre. However, low Mw additives gave higher sheet tensile strength despite a leveling out in strength at high additions, indicating that the fibre wall can only adsorb a limited amount of chemical. Polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH) and polyelectrolyte complexes (PEC) of PAH and polyacrylic acid (PAA) were added separately to the pulp. PEC significantly improved both tensile strength and Z-strength, whereas PAH alone did not increase the strength properties to the same extent unless the sheets were heated to 150°C for 10 minutes. The results suggested that the effect of PEC was dominated by an improvement in fibre/fibre joint strength, whereas the effect of PAH was significantly affected by an improvement of the intra-fibre bond strength
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Kamal Alm, Hajer, 1981-
(author)
-
Interfacial Adhesion Failure : Impact on print-coating surface defects
- 2016
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this work was to develop a solid knowledge on formulation effects controlling offset ink-paper coating adhesion and to identify key factors of the coating and printing process affecting it. Focus lay on comprehending the impact of pigment dispersant on ink-paper coating adhesion and ultimately on the print quality of offset prints.The work covers laboratory studies, a pilot coating trial designed to produce coated material with a span in surface chemistry and structure, and an industrial offset printing trial.The lab scale studies quantified ink-paper coating adhesion failure during ink setting with a developed laboratory procedure based on the Ink-Surface Interaction Tester (ISIT) and image analysis. Additional polyacrylate dispersant resulted in slower ink setting and reduced ink-paper coating adhesion, with a dependence on its state of salt neutralisation and cation exchange, mainly in the presence of moisture/liquid water.The industrial printing trial on pilot coated papers was designed to study how these laboratory findings affected full scale offset print quality. These trials confirmed the dispersant-sensitive effect on ink-paper coating adhesion, especially at high water feeds. Evaluation of prints from the printing trial resulted in two fundamentally different types of ink adhesion failure being identified. The first type being traditional ink refusal, and the second type being a novel mechanism referred to as ink-lift-off adhesion failure. Ink-lift-off adhesion failure occurs when ink is initially deposited on the paper but then lifted off in a subsequent print unit. In this work, ink adhesion failure by this ink-lift-off mechanism was observed to occur more often than failure due to ink refusal.Print quality evaluation of the industrial prints suggested that water induced mottle was caused by a combination of ink-surface adhesion failure, creating white spots on the print, together with variation in ink layer thickness due to emulsified ink.
|
|
| 6. |
- Magnusson, Mikael S., 1984-
(author)
-
Testing and Evaluation of Interfibre Joint Strength under Mixed-Mode Loading
- 2013
-
Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The failure properties of interfibre bonds are the key for the build-up of strength in fibrous materials such as paper and paperboard. In order to tailor the properties of such materials by chemical or mechanical treatments and to learn how such modifications influence the properties at a microscopic level, direct measurement of individual fibre--fibre crosses are typically performed. However, the state of loading in the interfibre joint, in testing of individual fibre--fibre crosses, is in general very complex and a greater understanding for how to evaluate the mechanical properties of interfibre joints is desirable.In Paper A, a method for manufacturing multiple fibre--fibre cross specimens and a procedure for testing interfibre joints at different modes of loading is presented. The method is applied to investigate the strength of fibre-fibre crosses with different geometry and at two principally different modes of loading. Also, an investigation on the influence of drying pressure, the drying method as well as a comparison of pulp fibres from two different degrees of refining is presented. The force at rupture is scaled in terms of different geometric parameters; nominal overlap area, length and width of the joint region. It is shown that neither of the methods of scaling unambiguously reduced the coefficient of variation of the mean strength and that the force at rupture in a peeling type of loading was about 20% of the ones tested in the conventional shearing type of loading.In Paper B, a procedure for evaluating interfibre joint strength measurements in terms of resultant forces and moments at rupture is presented. The method is applied to investigate the state of loading in fibre-fibre crosses tested in two principally different modes of loading. It is shown that for a typical interfibre joint test, the modes of loading other than pure shear, cannot in general be neglected and is strongly dependent on the structural geometry of the fibre-fibre crosses. Also, the stress state in the interface centroid was estimated in order to quantify how the mode of loading influence the amount of normal stresses that develop in relation to the amount of shear stresses in the interfibre joint.
|
|
| 7. |
- Stevanic Srndovic, Jasna, 1971-
(author)
-
Ultrastructure of the Primary Cell Wall of Softwood Fibres Studied using Dynamic FT-IR Spectroscopy
- 2008
-
Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The primary cell wall is a complex multipolymer system whose composite structure has been mostly determined from chemical and biochemical studies. Although the primary cell wall serves a central role, with regard to the connective properties of fibres, knowledge about the interactions among the polymers, when it comes to the mechanical properties, is very limited. The physical properties of the polymers, i.e. their elastic and viscous deformations, as well as the ultrastructure of the polymers, i.e. the interactions among the polymers in the outer fibre wall layers that lead to this behaviour, are still not fully understood. The aim of this study was to examine how the different wood polymers, viz. lignin, protein, pectin, xyloglucan and cellulose, interact in the outer fibre wall layers of the spruce wood tracheid. The initial objective was to separate an enriched primary cell wall material from a first stage TMP, by means of screening and centri-cleaning. From this material, consisting of the primary cell wall (P) and outer secondary cell wall (S1) materials, thin sheets were prepared and analysed using a number of different analytical methods. The major measuring technique used was dynamic Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR) spectroscopy in combination with dynamic 2D FT-IR spectroscopy. This technique is based on the detection of small changes in molecular absorption that occur when a sinusoidally stretched sample undergoes low strain. The molecular groups affected by the stretching respond in a specific way, depending on their environment, while the unaffected molecular groups provide no response to the dynamic spectra, by producing no elastic or viscous signals. Moreover, the dynamic 2D FT-IR spectroscopy provides useful information about various intermolecular and intramolecular interactions, which influence the reorientability of functional groups in a polymer material. Measurements of the primary cell wall material, using dynamic FT-IR spectroscopy, indicated that strong interactions exist among lignin, protein and pectin, as well as among cellulose, xyloglucan and pectin in this particular layer. This was in contrast to the secondary cell wall, where interactions of cellulose with glucomannan and of xylan with lignin were dominant. It was also indicated that the most abundant crystalline cellulose in the primary cell wall of spruce wood fibres is the cellulose Iβ allomorph, which was also in contrast to the secondary cell wall, where the cellulose Iα allomorph is more dominant. The presence of strong interactions among the polymers in the primary cell wall and, especially, the relatively high content of pectin and protein, showed that there is a very good possibility of selectively attacking these polymers in the primary cell wall. The first selective reaction chosen was a low degree of sulphonation, applied by an impregnation pretreatment of chips with a very low charge of sodium sulfite (Na2SO3). This selective reaction caused some structural modification of the lignin, a weakening of the interactions between lignin;pectin, lignin;protein and pectin;protein, as well as an increased softening of the sulphonated primary cell wall material, when compared to the unsulphonated primary cell wall material. All this resulted in an increased swelling ability of the material.
|
|
