Contribution of Hydrogen Bonds to Paper Strength Properties

PLoS One. 2016 May 26;11(5):e0155809. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155809. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

The objective of this work was to investigate the influence of hydrogen bonds between fibres on static and dynamic strength properties of paper. A commercial bleached pinewood kraft pulp was soaked in water, refined in a PFI, and used to form paper webs in different solvents, such as water, methanol, ethanol, n-propanol and n-butanol, to determine the effect of their dipole moment on static and dynamic strength properties of resulting paper sheets. Paper which was formed in water, being the solvent of the highest dipole moment among the tested ones, showed the highest breaking length and tear resistance. When paper webs were formed in n-butanol, which was the least polar among the solvents, these parameters were reduced by around 75%. These results provide evidence of the importance of water in paper web formation and strong impact of hydrogen bonds between fibres on strength properties of paper.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Hydrogen / chemistry*
  • Hydrogen Bonding
  • Paper*
  • Solvents / chemistry*
  • Water / chemistry*

Substances

  • Solvents
  • Water
  • Hydrogen

Associated data

  • Dryad/10.5061/dryad.km83

Grants and funding

This work was supported by LIDER/042/407/L-4/12/NCBR/2013 founded by National Centre for Research and Development, Poland (NCBiR) to PP (www.ncbr.gov.pl).