Title
Effect of molecular chitosan on recovered paper properties described by a mathematic model
Authors
LAURA ANDZE JURIS ZOLDNERS LINDA ROZENBERGA INESE SABLE MARITE SKUTE MARIANNA LAKA LINDA VECBISKENA MARTINS ANDZS and ANDRIS ACTINS

Received September 4, 2017
Published Volume 52 Issue 9-10 October-December
Keywords chitosan, recovered paper, tensile index, wet strength, water sorption, mathematic model

Abstract
In this work, the effect of three different molecular chitosans on the properties of paper obtained from recovered paper has been studied and experimental data have been explained by mathematical modelling. The physical-mechanical properties, such as dry and wet strength, as well as water sorption of paper, have been analysed. The results showed that the molecular chitosan additive improved the tensile index of dry paper by approximately 15-25%, the wet strength – up to 9 times. The optimum quantity of chitosan was determined to be 2.5% of the fiber weight, which agrees with the fibre sorption capacity of chitosan, calculated by the function of the mathematical model for sorption. A higher amount of the chitosan additive no longer significantly improves the properties of a fibre sheet.