• Amaya, Jose
• Tijero, Antonio
• Moral, Ana
• Ballesteros, Menta
• Aguado, Roberto J.

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>In this work, the brown alga <jats:italic>Dictyota dichotoma</jats:italic> was explored as a new reinforcing material for papermaking. Performing the typical chemical tests for cellulosic substrates on <jats:italic>D. dichotoma</jats:italic> evidenced large amounts of ethanol:benzene extractable substances (7.2%) and ashes, algae-specific results. Also, even if lipophilic compounds are removed, brown seaweed are not a primary source of fibers because it contains low proportion of cellulose. However, its elevated content of insoluble carbohydrates (51.4%) suggest there is some potential in association with conventional cellulosic pulps, as fibrous elements contribute to sheet forming and other components fill the spaces in the paper web without noteworthy loss of strength. Extraction was carried out with clean processes: hydrogen peroxide and mixtures (hydrogen peroxide-hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide-sodium perborate), sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite, always aiming for low reagent concentrations, in the range of 1-12%. The results show that sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite were the treatments that lead to paper sheets with better structural and mechanical properties without further bleaching or refining, thus highlighting the suitability of these algae for papermaking applications.</jats:p>

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• compound
• extraction
• strength
• Sodium
• Hydrogen
• forming
• cellulose