Relationship between wettability and sizing degree of paper containing bulking agent

Abstract

The addition of a bulking agent achieves the bulking of paper and increases the pore volume. In this study, the effect of adding bulking agents with various alkyl chain lengths (C₁₄, C₁₈, and C₂₂) on the bulk of paper, the sizing performance, and sheet wettability was evaluated. The bulking effect of a bulking agent with a short alkyl chain length (C₁₄) was large, and reduction in the sheet tensile strength was confirmed to be suppressed. Good sheet sizing performance was achieved when a bulking agent was used with an alkyl ketene dimer (AKD). When 0.1% or more of AKD was added, using a bulking agent with a shorter alkyl chain length increased the improvement in the sizing degree. Pyrolysis gas chromatography measurements of the amount of reacted AKD revealed that the addition of a bulking agent increased the AKD content of the sheet. The sheet contact angle measured by the two-liquid method tended to increase with increasing alkyl chain length. However, the sheet contact angle was not directly correlated with the Stöckigt sizing degree. By using 1% ferric chloride (FeCl₃) and 2% ammonium thiocyanate (NH₄SCN) aqueous solution, which are used for measuring the Stöckigt sizing degree, the time-dependent change in the contact angle on the paper sheet surface was measured to evaluate wettability. The Stöckigt sizing degree of paper sheets was found to be greatly influenced by the sheet wettability by NH₄SCN solution. In the case of 2% NH₄SCN aqueous solution, different samples exhibited large wettability differences. When 0.2% or less of AKD was added, the effect of the concentration on the contact angle was confirmed to be large at all NH₄SCN concentrations.