Grafting of acrylamide onto cellulosic fibers via dielectric-barrier discharge

Fully bleached kraft pulp (BKP) and thermomechanical pulp (TMP) fibers were grafted with acrylamide via dielectric-barrier discharge treatment at various treatment dosages. The results indicate that increased dielectric-barrier discharge treatment leads to the increased polymerization and incorporation of acrylamide onto fiber surfaces. Greater incorporation of poly(acrylamide) occurs on the BKP fibers than the TMP at the same treatment conditions. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicate that dielectric-barrier discharge initiated modifications to fiber surface topo-chemistry occur across the fiber such that the sheet is randomly peppered with modified areas; however, it occurs in patches on individual fibers as opposed to occurring as an evenly distributed thin film. SEM and elemental analysis also showed that the incorporation of acrylamide onto the fiber surface increases with increased treatment dosages.