Starch paste stickiness is a relevant native starch selection criterion for wet-end paper manufacturing

The correct choice of selection and quality criteria is critical for most starch applications. In this study, a set of different potato starches, selected for a large variation in natural phosphate content and final viscosity, was cationised and tested in a laboratory scale wet-end paper manufacturing process. Analysis of further parameters expected to be critical for processing, including amylose content and starch granule size, was also performed. Since no significant correlation was found between any of these parameters and paper processing, further attempts were made to find structural or physicochemical explanations for the paper processing performance. Hence, several additional parameters of the starches were determined including amylopectin chain length pattern, phosphate substitution, molecular size distribution, pasting-texture properties and fragility of the gelatinised granules. Among these parameters, the best correlation found to paper filler retention was stickiness of the starch as measured by texture analysis. The starches that performed best in the paper trials showed rapid granule bursts that could be readily estimated from the width of the pasting curve peaks. Light microscopy of non-soluble remnant starch obtained after gelatinisation of starch under dilute conditions revealed a high proportion of broken granular structures. It is hypothesised that the degree of phosphorylation, together with a hitherto unknown molecular parameter that is related to starch granule fragility, determines starch paste stickiness, which in turn is an important parameter for wet-end paper manufacturing.