Research on Biological Modification of Pulp to Improve the Strength of Paper

Abstract

Based on the domestic OCC pulp as raw material, it was found that the optimum conditions for laccase treatment were: the concentration of laccase 16U/g dry pulp, the pulp consistency 5%, temperature 50 °C, pH=5.0 and reaction time 90min. OCC treated with laccase alone can improve paper strength properties. The dry tensile index and wet tensile index of the control sample were 21.80 Nm/g and 0.22 Nm/g, respectively. The dry tensile index and wet tensile index after OCC treated with laccase alone were 23.36 Nm/g and 0.28 Nm /g. Comparing to the control pulp, the dry tensile index and wet tensile index of OCC treated with laccase were increased by 6.88% and 27.3%, respectively. At the same time, the laccase system can obviously improve the strength of the pulp properties with adding the mediator, especially using histidine, the dry and wet strength of paper was largely improved.