The Application Of Bacterial Cellulose Fibre In Papermaking Industry

Bacterial Cellulose (BC for short) also by the name of Microbial Cellulose is a kind of ultra-fine and highly pure fiber synthesized by some microbes. From the aspect of cellulose composition, BC is a linear condensation polymer consisted of D-anhydroglucopyranose units joined together by β-1,4-glycosidic bonds (thus a1,4-β-D glucan) like plant cellulose. While to physical, chemical and mechanical properties, in comparison with other plant cellulose in nature, BC displays unique properties including higher purity, higher crystallinity, higher degree of polymerization and water holding capacity, better tensile strength and elastic modulus, stronger bioadaptability and BC can be decomposed directly in natural environment. As a new kind of attractive biomedical material, BC has been recently applied in many fields, such as food, papermaking, biomedical materials, acoustic diaphragms etc, and it has extensive commercial applications.In this paper, we utilized static fermentation method to cultivate bacterial cellulose, and then studied the relevant properties and structural characteristics, and ascertained the best dispersed concentration of BC. Enhanced mechanism in the paper structure was studied by measuring the physical strength of paper, which was made of BC and plant fiber. Finally the effect of BC as an auxiliary binder on the surface properties of coated paper was studied.The results showed that BC wet pellicle had a high moisture content, reaching over98%. The physical properties of paper made of BC and plant fiber were higher than those made of plant fiber only. When the dosage of BC was3%, physical properties came to the maximum, and the optimum dispersed concentration was obtained, which was0.10%. Furthermore, it was also found that BC fiber had a greater impact on the performance of paper with lower beating degree, and after freezing treatment, it had a better compounding performance with plant fiber, to some extent it can save beating energy consumption. As an auxiliary binder, BC was applied in coating to improve the anti-aging ability and ink absorption of coated paper.From the analysis of scan electronic microscope image and FTIR, it can be obtained that BC pellicle had a clear multi-layer and ultra-fine network structure, which made dispersed BC fibers had greater surface and formed more hydrogen bonds between hydroxies of BC fibers and the surface free hydroxies of plant fibers, thus improved the binding force between fibers and physical strength of paper.From the application of BC in papermaking, we can see that without special methods to add, it can develop a simple method to manufacture BC paper and greatly reduce the papermaking process, therefore it can create a new raw material for specialty paper.