Two kinds of paper were made as follows :
(a) One was made from methyl methacrylate (MMA), ethyl methacrylate (EMA), and butyl methacrylate (BMA) grafted pulp of various degree of grafting.
(b) The other was made by saturating the paper made from original pulp with various concentration of polymer (PMMA, PEMA and PBMA) solution.
Stress-strain curves for these paper were measured over the temperature range from -10°to 130°C, and folding endurance was also examined at various temperatures.
Physical properties of these paper are directly affected by relative humidities at the definite testing temperature : i.e., tensile strength of the paper decreases with increasing relative humidities, while elongation-at-break increases.
There is a maximum value in every case for stress-temperature curves and the temperature which gives the maximum value correspond to the glass transition temperature (
Tg) of the polymers in the case of (b), but the temperature are 40°60°C in the case of (a).
These results are mainly due to two effects : one is to increase the paper strength owing to the decrease of moisture content in sheet with increasing temperature, and the other is to decrease owing to the decrease of yield point of the polymer above
Tg.
Folding endurance of the paper decreases with the increase of testing temperature. As this property is remarkably affected by the flexibility of the fibers, it is considered to be due to the dominating effect of the moisture content in sheet rather than temperature effect against the polymer.
The effect of heat treatment on the paper strength was observed by changing the heating temperature, and it was found that the higher paper strength can be obtained by treating the paper above the softening point of the polymer.
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