Enhancing Wet Cellulose Adhesion with Proteins

Twenty proteins were compared as potential paper wet strengthening additives by measuring the peel force required to delaminate wet, regenerated cellulose films laminated with a thin (3 mg/m2) protein layer. Wet adhesion results ranged over nearly an order of magnitude, reflecting the importance of protein composition. The proteins with the highest contents of lysine and arginine gave the strongest adhesion with secondary contributions from …