Conventional bleached eucalyptus kr

Conventional bleached eucalyptus kraft pulp was provided by Votorantim Cellulose and Paper, Brazil. The pulp was collected di- rectly from the mill, prior to drying and pressing. It was extensively washed with water and centrifuged to remove any residual chemical from the pulping and bleaching processes.
The procedure used for the surface modification of the cellulose fibres and the choice of the silanes used were based in on the studies developed by Abdelmouleh et al. [18] and Delvasto et al. [19]. The silanes used were methacryloxypropyltri-methoxysilane (MPTS) and aminopropyltri-ethoxysilane (APTS), and their struc- tures are given in Table 1. The silanes/cellulose pulp ratio was 6%, w/w. The silanes were prehydrolysed for 2 h under stirring in 80/20 v/v ethanol-distilled water. Then, cellulose pulp was added to the prehydrolysed silane and the resulting suspension was maintained for 2 h under stirring. At the end of the reaction, the pulp was centrifuged at 1400 rpm for 2 min.