Novel paper sizing agents based on renewables. Part 8: on the binding behavior of reactive sizing agents—the question of covalent versus adsorptive binding

The binding mechanisms of two reactive sizing agents, alkenyl succinic anhydride (ASA) and maleated sunflower oil high-oleic (MSOHO), with cellulose were studied. While ASA is produced from olefins out of fossil resources, MSOHO is a green sizing agent based on renewable plant materials. In contrast to common assumptions, that ASA is mostly covalently bound to cellulose, this study showed the largest part of ASA to be bound only by physisorption and only a rather small fraction, typically about 0.5 %, to be covalently attached by ester bonds. In the case of MSOHO, the covalent binding was only slightly higher, with about 3 % of the total amount being covalently linked. In both cases, covalently bound sizing agents were found to be almost uniformly distributed over the whole DP range of the cellulose as seen by carboxyl-selective fluorescence labeling in combination with size exclusion chromatography (“FDAM method”).