A Review of Ways to Adjust Papermaking Wet-End Chemistry: Manipulation of Cellulosic Colloidal Behavior

This article reviews various adjustments in chemical additives and process conditions that can be used in the course of papermaking to manipulate either the efficiency of the process or the attributes of the resulting paper. Published studies show that the effects of certain chemical additives to the fiber suspension can be understood based on the forces of interaction between surfaces, i.e. the colloidal forces. There are opportunities to use such concepts to optimize the efficiency of retention of fine particles and the rate of water release during papermaking. It is proposed that – for easier understanding – the papermaking process should be viewed as a series of pairwise interactions, for which the outcomes depend on the ionic charges of surfaces, the hydrophobic or hydrophilic character of those surfaces, the balance of charges of dissolved polyelectrolytes, and conditions of hydrodynamic shear inherent in the unit operations of papermaking.