MECHANISM OF CROSS-LINKING OF PAPERS WITH POLYFUNCTIONAL CARBOXYLIC-ACIDS

Brief thermal curing of papers treated with an aqueous solution of polyfunctional carboxylic acids and NaH2PO4 imparts substantial wet strength to the papers. The effectiveness of such carboxylic acids increases with their functionality in the order 1,2,3,4-butanetetra-carboxylic acid (BTCA) > tricarballylic acid (TCA) >> succinic acid. The two main stages of the curing reaction of papers, i.e., pendant attachment of the polyfunctional carboxylic acids via esterification with cellulosic hydroxyl groups, and its further reaction with another cellulose hydroxyl group producing crosslinks of the cellulose fibers were analyzed separately using a combination of acid-base and conductometric titrations. The extent of reaction of the polyfunctional. carboxylic acids with paper was followed by pH titration, which shows the total decrease in acid functions as the curing progresses and is directly related to the total consumption of carboxylic acids groups by ester attachment and ester crosslinking steps. The conductometric titration, on the other hand, measures the increase in carboxylic acids bound to cellulose units of the paper as a direct result of previous esterification steps. Our studies reveal that the reaction of BTCA with papers is essentially quantitative after 15 min of curing. The amount of once-reacted BTCA increases in the initial phases of the curing reaction and then decreases as more and more carboxylic acid units are converted into crosslinking sites, while the amount of crosslinked BTCA increases throughout the curing reaction. The reaction profile of papers with TCA differs from that of BTCA in that the curing reaction is initially dominated by the formation of ester appendages; crosslinking becomes the main reaction only after extended curing times. We attribute this difference to the ability of BTCA to form an highly reactive difunctional crosslinking reagent at the outset of the curing reaction, while TCA is initially monofunctional in its reaction with cellulosic hydroxyl groups (formation of a monoanhydride). The relationship between the wet tensile strength of the treated papers and their degree of crosslinking is also discussed. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.