Degradation Differences between Papers Made from Bamboo Fibers and Wood Fibers

Laboratory sheets prepared from bamboo and hardwood pulps were subjected to dry heat aging, moist heat aging, and sealed tube aging for different durations and the resulting changes in their physical properties related to paper degradation were evaluated. Unaged acid-free laboratory sheets prepared from bamboo pulp exhibited higher tearing strengths and zero-span tensile strengths than sheets prepared from hardwood pulp. However, bamboo sheets tended to degrade more rapidly than hardwood sheets in accelerated aging tests. In particular, acidic bamboo sheets aged faster than acidic hardwood sheets in the sealed tube aging test. The deterioration rate of bamboo paper depended considerably on the reduction in the degree of polymerization during aging. Tube aging gave higher degradation rates of the properties of both bamboo and hardwood papers than either dry heat aging or moist heat aging. (Received 26 April, 2011; Accepted 28 July, 2011)