High-yield grafting of carboxylated polymers to wood pulp fibers

Poly(ethylene-alt-maleic acid), PEMAc, is a linear polymer that, along with its isomer polyacrylic acid, has the highest carboxylic acid content of any polymer. The goal of this work was to elucidate the mechanisms that control the amount of PEMAc that is permanently fixed on pulp fibers after the impregnation of dry pulp with a dilute PEMAc solution followed by drying/heating (curing). Two mechanisms by which PEMAc is fixed to cellulose fibers were discovered, chemical, and physical fixation. With room temperature drying only physical fixation is operative. Evidence supports the explanation that physical fixation is a consequence of the slow swelling and dissolution of thick dried PEMAc deposits on fiber surfaces. Chemical fixation includes grafting to cellulose plus enhanced cohesion within thick PEMAc layers, possibly due to interchain crosslinking. The pH of the PEMAc impregnation solution determines the fixation mechanism for curing temperatures above 100 °C. Physical fixation dominates when pH > 8 whereas chemical fixation dominates for impregnation pH values ≤ 7, suggesting the curing reactions require partial or complete protonation of the succinic acid moieties. The yield of impregnated polymer fixed to the fibers after washing depends upon the fixation mechanism. When chemical fixation dominates, the yields for low and high molecular weight PEMAc doses less than 0.1 meq/g (6.3 kg PEMA/tonne dry pulp) were close to or equaled 100%. By contrast, when the primary mechanism is physical fixation, yields are ~50% for high molecular weight PEMAc and 0–20% for low MW PEMAc. These results show that high PEMAc fixation yields can be achieved under curing conditions that could be implemented in pulp drying machines producing dry market pulp. Graphic abstract