THE EFFECTS OF HYDROGEN PEROXIDE BLEACHING ON THE STRENGTH PROPERTIES OF RAPHIA HOOKERI CHEMI-MECHANICAL PAPER

Abstract

The effects of hydrogen peroxide bleaching on the strength properties of Raphia hookeri Chemi-mechanical Paper (CMP) had been investigated. The raphia piassava were reduced to match-stick sized chips manually. The raphia chips were impregnated with a mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulphite for 30 minutes. The chips were beaten and refined to a freeness of 202 CSF. Half of the stock was bleached using 1.39% hydrogen peroxide on Borne-dry (BD) pulp. The bleached and unbleached R. hookeri pulp were formed into paper sheets and tested for physical strength properties. The result showed that there was 17.51% brightness gain for the bleached R. hookeri CMP. Secondly, there was slight reduction in the tear strength (from 880 to 778.67mN), tensile strength (from 20.05 to 2.01 kNm-1) and percentage stretch (from 2.56 to 1.83) of the bleached R. hookeri CMP due to the effects of hydrogen peroxide on the fibres.