Use of Glyoxal in Starch Based Sizing Mixture for Surface Modification of Paper

Starches have been used as the surface sizing or coating material to enhance the strength and surface properties of paper. The main mechanisms behind their performance are physical and chemical interactions between cellulosic fibres and starches. In this study, the usage of glyoxal in an oxidized starch-based sizing mixture was studied to improve the chemical crosslinking due to the additional hydrogen and acetal bonds. The performance of glyoxal on starch sizing formula containing oxidized starch, styrene acrylate and polyaluminium chloride were studied in terms of water resistance and mechanical properties of paper. The results showed that the water absorption values (Cobb60) decreased by 32% when adding glyoxal to paper coated with the reference solution, which contained only a styrene acrylate copolymer. Additionally, with this newly formulated surface sizing application, the tensile strength of the papers increased by about 16% compared with the reference.