Sugar-cellulose composites V. The mechanism of fiber strengthening by cell wall incorporation of sugars

Abstract

The incorporation of sucrose or some other disaccharides (cellobiose, α-lactose or trehalose) into the cell wall of pulp fibers increases the tearing resistance of the resultant sugar-containing paper relative to that of its sugar-free counterpart, but only when the fiber is well-refined. Maltose and β-lactose do not exhibit this effect. By the use of a high cellulose pulp the increase is shown not to be due to the presence of hemicelluloses. Differential scanning calorimetry indicates that the interaction between the sucrose molecules and the cellulosic fibers changes and becomes more uniform as the fibers are refined. Although the azo dye Congo red bonds strongly with cellulose the analogous reaction with disaccharides and cyclodextrins, established spectrophotometrically, could not be used to predict the physical outcome of the interactions with added disaccharides or cyclodextrins. From a consideration of the stereochemistry of the impregnant disaccharides the augmentation of the fiber strength is attributed to the interlamellar hydrogen bonding of impregnant molecules having hydroxy endgroups in the cis conformation and separated by about 10Å. The incorporation of cyclodextrins further demonstrates that the conformation and the separation distance between the OH groups located in the interlamellar sugar molecule play an important role in strengthening the sugar-impregnated fiber and in augmenting the tearing resistance of sugar-containing papers.