3.2 Comparative Esterification of Bleached Kraft Pulp with Itaconic Anhydride for Enhanced Mechanical and Surface Properties
- Jelka Feldhusen
- PhD student,
- Chalmers
- Co-author(s): Gunnar Westman, Chalmers, Björn Sjöstrand, KAU, Tomas Larsson, KTH, Kent Malmgren, SCA
- Supervisor (PhD-students/postdocs): Gunnar Westman
- To meet current sustainability goals, changes must be made in several sectors. One of them is packaging where plastic or plastic additives are some of the most used materials, alongside cellulose-based materials. Compared to plastics, cellulose has the advantage of being renewable and sustainable, however, it has certain drawbacks and needs refinement or functionalization to meet certain application requirements. To gain better wet strength of the paper, petroleum-based resins are often used as a coating or crosslinker, enabling the pulp fibers to retain their mechanical strength while wet. Polyamino-amide epichlorohydrin resin (PAAE) is one of these resins, used as crosslinkers to enhance fiber network properties, stabilizing the material in contact with water. Alkenyl-succinic-anhydrides (ASA) compounds are another commonly used additive, mostly for enhancing hydrophobicity of the material on the surface. Itaconic anhydride, biobased and non-toxic, may act as a complement or additional additive to wet strength- or hydrophobization-agents as it effectively introduces carboxylic acid groups on the cellulose surface retaining water and acting as an additional anchoring point for the agent. This work compares the esterification of bleached kraft pulp (BKP) using itaconic anhydride (ITA) with solvent free gas-phase reaction and mild kneading reactions, and the formation of paper sheets thereof. Additionally, paper sheets were prepared with varying ratios of modified and unmodified fibers, as well as different dosage of PAAE or ASA. Their mechanical performance and surface properties, including tensile strength and contact angle, were evaluated to assess the influence of the introduced functionalities on sheet performance.
- Time of presentation: 9.20