The area of paper chemistry is by many knowledgeable suppliers conceived as pretty mature as most classical concepts in wet-end chemistry are reasonably well understood, although not always efficiently practised by papermakers. Hence, this evolution calls for more radical changes and among these changes fibre modification by different means has called for attention during recent years. Such modifications invoke biochemical modification of carrier polymers, new types of grafting methods and polyelectrolyte multilayering, which have been investigated particularly in the Nordic countries and also brought to commercial practice. Surface charge grafting constitutes a powerful means of fibre modification and the potential in this field will be reviewed and upcoming nanotechnology issues will also be discussed.
QC 20141111