Influence of fibre modification on moisture sorption and the mechanical properties of paper

• Fibre modification might be a way to improve the performance of paper, to increase its cost competiveness and enable new paper-based products to be developed. Therefore, the influence of fibre modification (with polyelectrolytes or by fibre cross-linking) on the mechanical properties of special importance for packaging paper grades was studied. Creep deformation under varying humidity conditions (i.e. mechano-sorptive creep) is of outmost importance for the stacking life of paper-based boxes. The influence on creep behaviour of adsorbing polyallylamine (a cationic polyelectrolyte) to fibre surfaces or throughout the fibre walls was studied. Adsorption to fibre surfaces reduced the creep at constant humidity. The mechano-sorptive creep was not however influenced. The use of polyelectrolytes did not thus appear to be a feasible strategy for reducing mechano-sorptive creep. Polyelectrolytes can however be efficient in improving other mechanical properties. The use of multilayers consisting of polyallylamine (PAH) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) was for example shown to significantly increase the strength of paper with much less densification and build-up of residual stress than is obtained by beating. Cross-linking by oxidation with periodate radically decreased the mechano-sorptive creep of sheets made from the oxidised fibres. The basic mechanism behind the reduction in mechano-sorptive with cross-linking was found to be that the cross-linking slowed down the moisture sorption kinetics. A lower sorption rate led to smaller moisture content variations during the mechano-sorptive creep testing, and thus less sorption-induced swelling and stress concentrations at fibre/fibre joints. However, for cross-linking to be a practical way to reduce creep, the large problem of embrittlement must be solved. The shear strength of couched sheets was measured to study the interaction between the sheets at different solids content. The shear strength was low until a solids content of approximately 60−70% was reached, which suggests that interactions important for the strength at complete dryness start to develop at this solids content. The effect of different fibre modifications and additives on how the fibres interact during the consolidation process is not always well understood. The method of shear strength determination could in the future be applied to modified fibres to hopefully increase the understanding of how different modifications influence the fibre/fibre interactions. A deeper understanding might reduce the time for the development of new and improved fibre modifications.

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