Increased joint-forming ability of ductile kraft pulp fibres by polyelectrolyte multilayer treatment – Influence of refining and drying strategies

In this study a sack paper furnish was used. It consisted of a high-consistency kraft pulp refined in either an atmospheric pressure or a pressurized system. The pulps were subsequently low-consistency refined in an Escher-Wyss laboratory refiner to 17.5-20.5 SR. Ordinary ISO sheets and freely dried sheets were manufactured from these pulp samples to serve as reference sheets. The laboratory sheets made of pulp from the pressurized system had a higher strain at break and tensile energy adsorption index but a lower tensile index than sheets made of pulp from a conventional atmospheric highconsistency refiner. These sheets were subject to a polyelectrolyte multilayer treatment to increase the interaction between the fibres, thus enhancing the paper strength properties. The polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEM) were applied by sequentially treating fibres from an unbleached kraft pulp for sack paper production with cationic starch and anionic carboxymethyl cellulose. The multilayer treatment was only applied to 50% of the stock and both ordinary ISO sheets and freely dried sheets were prepared with one and three layers of polyelectrolyte. Evaluation of the strength properties of the sheets showed that the addition of only one layer of starch increased strain at break, tensile index, tensile energy adsorption index, and out-of-plane properties measured as Scott-bond values. Using the multilayer technique created large increases in Scott-bond, a measure of the internal bonding of the sheets. The achieved effects were significantly larger than those usually achieved by applying starch alone to enhance the out-of plane strength properties. Also, the density increased considerably when the third layer was applied, for both ISO and freely dried sheets, though the tensile strength was enhanced significantly only in the freely dried sheets.