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78-476: Cardboard is a generic term for heavy paper-based products. The construction can range from a thick paper known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple plies of material. Natural cardboards can range from grey to light brown in color, depending on the specific product; dyes, pigments, printing, and coatings are available. The term "cardboard" has general use in English and French, but

156-454: A crystalline to amorphous transition when heated beyond 60–70 °C in water (as in cooking), cellulose requires a temperature of 320 °C and pressure of 25 MPa to become amorphous in water. Several types of cellulose are known. These forms are distinguished according to the location of hydrogen bonds between and within strands. Natural cellulose is cellulose I, with structures I α and I β . Cellulose produced by bacteria and algae

234-467: A liquid called bio-oil is obtained at 500 °C. Semi-crystalline cellulose polymers react at pyrolysis temperatures (350–600 °C) in a few seconds; this transformation has been shown to occur via a solid-to-liquid-to-vapor transition, with the liquid (called intermediate liquid cellulose or molten cellulose ) existing for only a fraction of a second. Glycosidic bond cleavage produces short cellulose chains of two-to-seven monomers comprising

312-417: A more durable material than paper. Cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula ( C 6 H 10 O 5 ) n , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D -glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wall of green plants , many forms of algae and

390-664: A number of industrial and construction processes. The oldest known archaeological fragments of the immediate precursor to modern paper date to the 2nd century BCE in China . The pulp papermaking process is ascribed to Cai Lun , a 2nd-century CE Han court eunuch . It has been said that knowledge of papermaking was passed to the Islamic world after the Battle of Talas in 751 CE when two Chinese papermakers were captured as prisoners and used to extract 'the secrets' of papermaking. Although

468-409: A polysaccharide matrix . The high tensile strength of plant stems and of the tree wood also arises from the arrangement of cellulose fibers intimately distributed into the lignin matrix. The mechanical role of cellulose fibers in the wood matrix responsible for its strong structural resistance, can somewhat be compared to that of the reinforcement bars in concrete , lignin playing here the role of

546-419: A proper solvent , e.g. in an ionic liquid . Most mammals have limited ability to digest dietary fibre such as cellulose. Some ruminants like cows and sheep contain certain symbiotic anaerobic bacteria (such as Cellulomonas and Ruminococcus spp. ) in the flora of the rumen , and these bacteria produce enzymes called cellulases that hydrolyze cellulose. The breakdown products are then used by

624-527: A rag paper. The aging behaviour of a paper is determined by its manufacture, not the original source of the fibres. Furthermore, tests sponsored by the Library of Congress prove that all paper is at risk of acid decay, because cellulose itself produces formic, acetic, lactic and oxalic acids. Mechanical pulping yields almost a tonne of pulp per tonne of dry wood used, which is why mechanical pulps are sometimes referred to as "high yield" pulps. With almost twice

702-447: A variety of aluminium sulfate salt that is significantly acidic . Alum was added to paper to assist in sizing , making it somewhat water resistant so that inks did not "run" or spread uncontrollably. Early papermakers did not realize that the alum they added liberally to cure almost every problem encountered in making their product would be eventually detrimental. The cellulose fibres that make up paper are hydrolyzed by acid, and

780-744: A variety of uses. Nitrocellulose was initially used as an explosive and was an early film forming material. When plasticized with camphor , nitrocellulose gives celluloid . Cellulose Ether derivatives include: The sodium carboxymethyl cellulose can be cross-linked to give the croscarmellose sodium (E468) for use as a disintegrant in pharmaceutical formulations. Furthermore, by the covalent attachment of thiol groups to cellulose ethers such as sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, ethyl cellulose or hydroxyethyl cellulose mucoadhesive and permeation enhancing properties can be introduced. Thiolated cellulose derivatives (see thiomers ) exhibit also high binding properties for metal ions. Cellulose for industrial use

858-685: A wide variety of products. While the first application of regenerated cellulose was as a clothing textile , this class of materials is also used in the production of disposable medical devices as well as fabrication of artificial membranes . The hydroxyl groups (−OH) of cellulose can be partially or fully reacted with various reagents to afford derivatives with useful properties like mainly cellulose esters and cellulose ethers (−OR). In principle, although not always in current industrial practice, cellulosic polymers are renewable resources. Ester derivatives include: Cellulose acetate and cellulose triacetate are film- and fiber-forming materials that find

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936-462: A wide variety of properties, depending on its intended use. It is estimated that paper-based storage solutions captured 0.33% of the total in 1986 and only 0.007% in 2007, even though in absolute terms the world's capacity to store information on paper increased from 8.7 to 19.4 petabytes . It is estimated that in 1986 paper-based postal letters represented less than 0.05% of the world's telecommunication capacity, with sharply decreasing tendency after

1014-464: Is chiral and is biodegradable . It was shown to melt at 467 °C in pulse tests made by Dauenhauer et al. (2016). It can be broken down chemically into its glucose units by treating it with concentrated mineral acids at high temperature. Cellulose is derived from D -glucose units, which condense through β(1→4)- glycosidic bonds . This linkage motif contrasts with that for α(1→4)-glycosidic bonds present in starch and glycogen . Cellulose

1092-443: Is uncoated . Coated paper has a thin layer of material such as calcium carbonate or china clay applied to one or both sides in order to create a surface more suitable for high-resolution halftone screens. (Uncoated papers are rarely suitable for screens above 150 lpi.) Coated or uncoated papers may have their surfaces polished by calendering . Coated papers are divided into matte, semi-matte or silk, and gloss. Gloss papers give

1170-698: Is (C 6 H 10 O 5 ) n where n is the degree of polymerization and represents the number of glucose groups. Plant-derived cellulose is usually found in a mixture with hemicellulose , lignin , pectin and other substances, while bacterial cellulose is quite pure, has a much higher water content and higher tensile strength due to higher chain lengths. Cellulose consists of fibrils with crystalline and amorphous regions. These cellulose fibrils may be individualized by mechanical treatment of cellulose pulp, often assisted by chemical oxidation or enzymatic treatment, yielding semi-flexible cellulose nanofibrils generally 200 nm to 1 μm in length depending on

1248-491: Is a lamination of natural plant fibre, while paper is manufactured from fibres whose properties have been changed by maceration. To make pulp from wood, a chemical pulping process separates lignin from cellulose fibre. A cooking liquor is used to dissolve the lignin , which is then washed from the cellulose ; this preserves the length of the cellulose fibres. Paper made from chemical pulps are also known as wood-free papers (not to be confused with tree-free paper ); this

1326-555: Is a non-digestible constituent of insoluble dietary fiber , acting as a hydrophilic bulking agent for feces and potentially aiding in defecation . Cellulose was discovered in 1838 by the French chemist Anselme Payen , who isolated it from plant matter and determined its chemical formula. Cellulose was used to produce the first successful thermoplastic polymer , celluloid , by Hyatt Manufacturing Company in 1870. Production of rayon ("artificial silk ") from cellulose began in

1404-432: Is a paper-based material, usually more than about ten mils (0.010 inches (0.25 mm)) thick. It is often used for folding cartons , set-up boxes, carded packaging , etc . Configurations of paperboard include: Currently, materials falling under these names may be made without using any actual paper. Corrugated fiberboard is a combination of paperboards, usually two flat liners and one inner fluted corrugated medium. It

1482-546: Is a straight chain polymer. Unlike starch, no coiling or branching occurs and the molecule adopts an extended and rather stiff rod-like conformation, aided by the equatorial conformation of the glucose residues. The multiple hydroxyl groups on the glucose from one chain form hydrogen bonds with oxygen atoms on the same or on a neighbour chain, holding the chains firmly together side-by-side and forming microfibrils with high tensile strength . This confers tensile strength in cell walls where cellulose microfibrils are meshed into

1560-455: Is a thick, paper-like material produced from the pith of the Cyperus papyrus plant, which was used in ancient Egypt and other Mediterranean cultures for writing before the introduction of paper. Although the word paper is etymologically derived from papyrus , the two are produced very differently and the development of the first is distinct from the development of the second. Papyrus

1638-574: Is another specialty process used to pulp straws , bagasse and hardwoods with high silicate content. There are two major mechanical pulps: thermomechanical pulp (TMP) and groundwood pulp (GW). In the TMP process, wood is chipped and then fed into steam-heated refiners, where the chips are squeezed and converted to fibres between two steel discs. In the groundwood process, debarked logs are fed into grinders where they are pressed against rotating stones to be made into fibres. Mechanical pulping does not remove

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1716-451: Is because they do not contain lignin, which deteriorates over time. The pulp can also be bleached to produce white paper, but this consumes 5% of the fibres. Chemical pulping processes are not used to make paper made from cotton, which is already 90% cellulose. There are three main chemical pulping processes: the sulfite process dates back to the 1840s and was the dominant method before the second world war. The kraft process , invented in

1794-475: Is considered card. The weight of a ream therefore depends on the dimensions of the paper and its thickness. Most commercial paper sold in North America is cut to standard paper sizes based on customary units and is defined by the length and width of a sheet of paper. The ISO 216 system used in most other countries is based on the surface area of a sheet of paper, not on a sheet's width and length. It

1872-496: Is cut to width with holes punched at the edges, and folded into stacks. All paper produced by paper machines such as the Fourdrinier Machine are wove paper, i.e. the wire mesh that transports the web leaves a pattern that has the same density along the paper grain and across the grain. Textured finishes, watermarks and wire patterns imitating hand-made laid paper can be created by the use of appropriate rollers in

1950-473: Is enriched in I α while cellulose of higher plants consists mainly of I β . Cellulose in regenerated cellulose fibers is cellulose II. The conversion of cellulose I to cellulose II is irreversible, suggesting that cellulose I is metastable and cellulose II is stable. With various chemical treatments it is possible to produce the structures cellulose III and cellulose IV. Many properties of cellulose depend on its chain length or degree of polymerization ,

2028-417: Is formed as a paper web and the water is removed from it by pressing and drying. Pressing the sheet removes the water by force. Once the water is forced from the sheet, a special kind of felt, which is not to be confused with the traditional one, is used to collect the water. When making paper by hand, a blotter sheet is used instead. Drying involves using air or heat to remove water from the paper sheets. In

2106-665: Is mainly obtained from wood pulp and from cotton . Energy crops: The major combustible component of non-food energy crops is cellulose, with lignin second. Non-food energy crops produce more usable energy than edible energy crops (which have a large starch component), but still compete with food crops for agricultural land and water resources. Typical non-food energy crops include industrial hemp , switchgrass , Miscanthus , Salix ( willow ), and Populus ( poplar ) species. A strain of Clostridium bacteria found in zebra dung, can convert nearly any form of cellulose into butanol fuel . Another possible application

2184-436: Is often used for making corrugated boxes for shipping or storing products. This type of cardboard is also used by artists as original material for sculpting. Most types of cardboard are recyclable . Boards that are laminates, wax coated, or treated for wet-strength are often more difficult to recycle. Clean cardboard ( i.e., cardboard that has not been subject to chemical coatings) "is usually worth recovering, although often

2262-405: Is produced using the same family of proteins, although the gene is called BcsA for "bacterial cellulose synthase" or CelA for "cellulose" in many instances. In fact, plants acquired CesA from the endosymbiosis event that produced the chloroplast . All cellulose synthases known belongs to glucosyltransferase family 2 (GT2). Cellulose synthesis requires chain initiation and elongation, and

2340-448: Is short for "cellulose synthase") genes, in an unknown stoichiometry . Separate sets of CesA genes are involved in primary and secondary cell wall biosynthesis. There are known to be about seven subfamilies in the plant CesA superfamily, some of which include the more cryptic, tentatively-named Csl (cellulose synthase-like) enzymes. These cellulose syntheses use UDP-glucose to form the β(1→4)-linked cellulose. Bacterial cellulose

2418-434: Is synthesized at the plasma membrane by rosette terminal complexes (RTCs). The RTCs are hexameric protein structures, approximately 25 nm in diameter, that contain the cellulose synthase enzymes that synthesise the individual cellulose chains. Each RTC floats in the cell's plasma membrane and "spins" a microfibril into the cell wall . RTCs contain at least three different cellulose synthases , encoded by CesA ( Ces

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2496-426: Is under development as a renewable fuel source. Cellulose for industrial use is mainly obtained from wood pulp and cotton . Cellulose is also greatly affected by direct interaction with several organic liquids. Some animals, particularly ruminants and termites , can digest cellulose with the help of symbiotic micro-organisms that live in their guts, such as Trichonympha . In human nutrition , cellulose

2574-751: The Han court eunuch Cai Lun , although the earliest archaeological fragments of paper derive from the 2nd century BCE in China. Although paper was originally made in single sheets by hand, today it is mass-produced on large machines—some making reels 10 metres wide, running at 2,000 metres per minute and up to 600,000 tonnes a year. It is a versatile material with many uses, including printing , painting, graphics, signage, design, packaging, decorating, writing , and cleaning . It may also be used as filter paper, wallpaper, book endpaper, conservation paper, laminated worktops, toilet tissue, currency, and security paper, or in

2652-587: The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants . Dioxins are highly toxic, and health effects on humans include reproductive, developmental, immune and hormonal problems. They are known to be carcinogenic. Over 90% of human exposure is through food, primarily meat, dairy, fish and shellfish, as dioxins accumulate in the food chain in the fatty tissue of animals. The paper pulp and print industries emitted together about 1% of world greenhouse-gas emissions in 2010 and about 0.9% in 2012. In

2730-495: The glycosidic linkage in cellulose are glycoside hydrolases including endo-acting cellulases and exo-acting glucosidases . Such enzymes are usually secreted as part of multienzyme complexes that may include dockerins and carbohydrate-binding modules . At temperatures above 350 °C, cellulose undergoes thermolysis (also called ' pyrolysis '), decomposing into solid char , vapors, aerosols , and gases such as carbon dioxide . Maximum yield of vapors which condense to

2808-412: The hardened cement paste acting as the "glue" in between the cellulose fibres. Mechanical properties of cellulose in primary plant cell wall are correlated with growth and expansion of plant cells. Live fluorescence microscopy techniques are promising in investigation of the role of cellulose in growing plant cells. Compared to starch, cellulose is also much more crystalline . Whereas starch undergoes

2886-491: The hydrogen bonds in the paper can be broken and fibres separated again. Most recycled paper contains a proportion of virgin fibre for the sake of quality; generally speaking, de-inked pulp is of the same quality or lower than the collected paper it was made from. There are three main classifications of recycled fibre: Recycled papers can be made from 100% recycled materials or blended with virgin pulp, although they are (generally) not as strong nor as bright as papers made from

2964-479: The lignin , so the yield is very high, > 95%; however, lignin causes the paper thus produced to turn yellow and become brittle over time. Mechanical pulps have rather short fibres, thus producing weak paper. Although large amounts of electrical energy are required to produce mechanical pulp, it costs less than the chemical kind. Paper recycling processes can use either chemically or mechanically produced pulp; by mixing it with water and applying mechanical action

3042-521: The oomycetes . Some species of bacteria secrete it to form biofilms . Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth. The cellulose content of cotton fibre is 90%, that of wood is 40–50%, and that of dried hemp is approximately 57%. Cellulose is mainly used to produce paperboard and paper . Smaller quantities are converted into a wide variety of derivative products such as cellophane and rayon . Conversion of cellulose from energy crops into biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol

3120-448: The 1870s and first used in the 1890s, is now the most commonly practised strategy; one of its advantages is the chemical reaction with lignin produces heat, which can be used to run a generator. Most pulping operations using the kraft process are net contributors to the electricity grid or use the electricity to run an adjacent paper mill. Another advantage is that this process recovers and reuses all inorganic chemical reagents. Soda pulping

3198-413: The 1890s and cellophane was invented in 1912. Hermann Staudinger determined the polymer structure of cellulose in 1920. The compound was first chemically synthesized (without the use of any biologically derived enzymes ) in 1992, by Kobayashi and Shoda. Cellulose has no taste, is odorless, is hydrophilic with the contact angle of 20–30 degrees, is insoluble in water and most organic solvents ,

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3276-681: The 2022−2024 edition of the annual "Pulp and paper capacites survey", the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reports that Asia has superseded North America as the top pulp and paper producing continent. FAO figures for 2021 show the production of graphic papers continuing its decline from a mid-2000s peak to hover below 100 million tonnes a year. By contrast, the production of other papers and paperboard – which includes cardboard and sanitary products – has continued to soar, exceeding 320 million tonnes. FAO has documented

3354-557: The United States alone. The average office worker in the US prints 31 pages every day. Americans also use in the order of 16 billion paper cups per year. Conventional bleaching of wood pulp using elemental chlorine produces and releases into the environment large amounts of chlorinated organic compounds , including chlorinated dioxins . Dioxins are recognized as a persistent environmental pollutant, regulated internationally by

3432-550: The United States and in micrometres (μm) in the rest of the world. Paper may be between 0.07 and 0.18 millimetres (0.0028 and 0.0071 in) thick. Paper is often characterized by weight. In the United States, the weight is the weight of a ream (bundle of 500 sheets) of varying "basic sizes" before the paper is cut into the size it is sold to end customers. For example, a ream of 20 lb, 8.5 in × 11 in (216 mm × 279 mm) paper weighs 5 pounds because it has been cut from larger sheets into four pieces. In

3510-502: The United States, printing paper is generally 20 lb, 24 lb, 28 lb, or 32 lb at most. Cover stock is generally 68 lb, and 110 lb or more is considered card stock . In Europe and other regions using the ISO 216 paper-sizing system, the weight is expressed in grams per square metre (g/m or usually gsm) of the paper. Printing paper is generally between 60 gsm and 120 gsm. Anything heavier than 160 gsm

3588-536: The Viscose Development Company, is the most widely used method for manufacturing regenerated cellulose products. Courtaulds purchased the patents for this process in 1904, leading to significant growth of viscose fiber production. By 1931, expiration of patents for the viscose process led to its adoption worldwide. Global production of regenerated cellulose fiber peaked in 1973 at 3,856,000 tons. Regenerated cellulose can be used to manufacture

3666-410: The bacteria for proliferation. The bacterial mass is later digested by the ruminant in its digestive system ( stomach and small intestine ). Horses use cellulose in their diet by fermentation in their hindgut . Some termites contain in their hindguts certain flagellate protozoa producing such enzymes, whereas others contain bacteria or may produce cellulase. The enzymes used to cleave

3744-446: The basis of commercial technologies. These dissolution processes are reversible and are used in the production of regenerated celluloses (such as viscose and cellophane ) from dissolving pulp . The most important solubilizing agent is carbon disulfide in the presence of alkali. Other agents include Schweizer's reagent , N -methylmorpholine N -oxide , and lithium chloride in dimethylacetamide . In general, these agents modify

3822-450: The biomass of land plants . In contrast to cellulose, hemicelluloses are derived from several sugars in addition to glucose , especially xylose but also including mannose , galactose , rhamnose , and arabinose . Hemicelluloses consist of shorter chains – between 500 and 3000 sugar units. Furthermore, hemicelluloses are branched, whereas cellulose is unbranched. Cellulose is soluble in several kinds of media, several of which are

3900-446: The cellulose was historically termed "tunicine" (tunicin)). Cellulolysis is the process of breaking down cellulose into smaller polysaccharides called cellodextrins or completely into glucose units; this is a hydrolysis reaction. Because cellulose molecules bind strongly to each other, cellulolysis is relatively difficult compared to the breakdown of other polysaccharides . However, this process can be significantly intensified in

3978-557: The cellulose, rendering it soluble. The agents are then removed concomitant with the formation of fibers. Cellulose is also soluble in many kinds of ionic liquids . The history of regenerated cellulose is often cited as beginning with George Audemars, who first manufactured regenerated nitrocellulose fibers in 1855. Although these fibers were soft and strong -resembling silk- they had the drawback of being highly flammable. Hilaire de Chardonnet perfected production of nitrocellulose fibers, but manufacturing of these fibers by his process

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4056-542: The cost of manufacturing paper. In 1844, the Canadian inventor Charles Fenerty and the German inventor Friedrich Gottlob Keller independently developed processes for pulping wood fibres. Before the industrialisation of paper production the most common fibre source was recycled fibres from used textiles, called rags. The rags were from hemp , linen and cotton . A process for removing printing inks from recycled paper

4134-653: The difference between the value it realizes and the cost of recovery is marginal". Cardboard can be recycled for industrial or domestic use. For example, cardboard may be composted or shredded for animal bedding. The material had been first made in France, in 1751 , by a pupil of Réaumur , and was used to reinforce playing cards. The term cardboard has been used since at least 1848, when Anne Brontë mentioned it in her novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall . The Kellogg brothers first used paperboard cartons to hold their flaked corn cereal, and later, when they began marketing it to

4212-560: The earliest days of papermaking, this was done by hanging the sheets like laundry; in more modern times, various forms of heated drying mechanisms are used. On the paper machine, the most common is the steam-heated can dryer. These can reach temperatures above 93 °C (200 °F) and are used in long sequences of more than forty cans where the heat produced by these can easily dry the paper to less than six percent moisture. The paper may then undergo sizing to alter its physical properties for use in various applications. Paper at this point

4290-444: The expanding production of cardboard in paper and paperboard, which has been increasing in response to the spread of e-commerce since the 2010s. Data from FAO suggest that it has been even further boosted by COVID-19-related lockdowns. Some manufacturers have started using a new, significantly more environmentally friendly alternative to expanded plastic packaging. Made out of paper, and known commercially as PaperFoam,

4368-444: The general public, a heat-sealed bag of wax paper was wrapped around the outside of the box and printed with their brand name. This development marked the origin of the cereal box, though in modern times the sealed bag is plastic and is kept inside the box. The Kieckhefer Container Company, run by John W. Kieckhefer , was another early American packaging industry pioneer. It excelled in the use of fiber shipping containers, particularly

4446-417: The highest optical density in the printed image. The paper is then fed onto reels if it is to be used on web printing presses, or cut into sheets for other printing processes or other purposes. The fibres in the paper basically run in the machine direction. Sheets are usually cut "long-grain", i.e. with the grain parallel to the longer dimension of the sheet. Continuous form paper (or continuous stationery)

4524-414: The later stages of the machine. Wove paper does not exhibit "laidlines", which are small regular lines left behind on paper when it was handmade in a mould made from rows of metal wires or bamboo. Laidlines are very close together. They run perpendicular to the "chainlines", which are further apart. Handmade paper similarly exhibits "deckle edges", or rough and feathery borders. Paper can be produced with

4602-424: The latter. Besides the fibres, pulps may contain fillers such as chalk or china clay , which improve its characteristics for printing or writing. Additives for sizing purposes may be mixed with it or applied to the paper web later in the manufacturing process; the purpose of such sizing is to establish the correct level of surface absorbency to suit ink or paint. The pulp is fed to a paper machine, where it

4680-424: The massive introduction of digital technologies. Paper has a major role in the visual arts. It is used by itself to form two- and three-dimensional shapes and collages . It has also evolved to being a structural material used in furniture design. Watercolor paper has a long history of production and use. The thickness of paper is often measured by caliper, which is typically given in thousandths of an inch in

4758-602: The melt. Vapor bubbling of intermediate liquid cellulose produces aerosols , which consist of short chain anhydro-oligomers derived from the melt. Continuing decomposition of molten cellulose produces volatile compounds including levoglucosan , furans , pyrans , light oxygenates, and gases via primary reactions. Within thick cellulose samples, volatile compounds such as levoglucosan undergo 'secondary reactions' to volatile products including pyrans and light oxygenates such as glycolaldehyde . Hemicelluloses are polysaccharides related to cellulose that comprises about 20% of

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4836-519: The new packaging has mechanical properties very similar to those of some expanded plastic packaging, but is biodegradable and can also be recycled with ordinary paper. With increasing environmental concerns about synthetic coatings (such as PFOA ) and the higher prices of hydrocarbon based petrochemicals, there is a focus on zein (corn protein) as a coating for paper in high grease applications such as popcorn bags. Also, synthetics such as Tyvek and Teslin have been introduced as printing media as

4914-508: The number of glucose units that make up one polymer molecule. Cellulose from wood pulp has typical chain lengths between 300 and 1700 units; cotton and other plant fibers as well as bacterial cellulose have chain lengths ranging from 800 to 10,000 units. Molecules with very small chain length resulting from the breakdown of cellulose are known as cellodextrins ; in contrast to long-chain cellulose, cellodextrins are typically soluble in water and organic solvents. The chemical formula of cellulose

4992-468: The office and the home are A4 and A3 (A3 is the size of two A4 sheets). The density of paper ranges from 250 kg/m (16 lb/cu ft) for tissue paper to 1 500  kg/m (94 lb/cu ft) for some specialty paper. Printing paper is about 800 kg/m (50 lb/cu ft). Paper may be classified into seven categories: Some paper types include: Much of the early paper made from wood pulp contained significant amounts of alum ,

5070-478: The paper milk carton. Paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood , rags , grasses , herbivore dung , or other vegetable sources in water . Once the water is drained through a fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed on the surface, it can be pressed and dried. The papermaking process developed in east Asia, probably China , at least as early as 105 CE , by

5148-461: The past 40 years leading to increase in deforestation , with 35% of harvested trees being used for paper manufacture. Most paper companies also plant trees to help regrow forests. Logging of old growth forests accounts for less than 10% of wood pulp, but is one of the most controversial issues. Paper waste accounts for up to 40% of total waste produced in the United States each year, which adds up to 71.6 million tons of paper waste per year in

5226-428: The presence of alum eventually degrades the fibres until the acidic paper disintegrates in a process known as " slow fire ". Documents written on rag paper are significantly more stable. The use of non-acidic additives to make paper is becoming more prevalent, and the stability of these papers is less of an issue. Paper made from mechanical pulp contains significant amounts of lignin , a major component in wood. In

5304-428: The presence of light and oxygen, lignin reacts to give yellow materials, which is why newsprint and other mechanical paper yellows with age. Paper made from bleached kraft or sulfite pulps does not contain significant amounts of lignin and is therefore better suited for books, documents and other applications where whiteness of the paper is essential. Paper made from wood pulp is not necessarily less durable than

5382-517: The products sold in the United States being packaged in cardboard, over 120 billion pieces were used that year. In the same year, over 13,000 separate pieces of consumer cardboard packaging were thrown away by American households, combined with all paper products, and this constitutes almost 42 percent of all solid waste generated by the United States annually. In an effort to reduce this environmental impact, many households have started repurposing cardboard boxes for eco-friendly purposes. However, despite

5460-583: The sheer magnitude of paper waste, the vast majority of it is composed of one of the most successful and sustainable packaging materials of modern times - corrugated cardboard , known industrially as corrugated fiberboard . Various types of cards are available, which may be called "cardboard". Included are: thick paper (of various types) or pasteboard used for business cards , aperture cards , postcards , playing cards , catalog covers, binder's board for bookbinding , scrapbooking , and other uses which require higher durability than regular paper . Paperboard

5538-403: The term cardboard is deprecated in commerce and industry as not adequately defining a specific product. Material producers, container manufacturers, packaging engineers , and standards organizations , use more specific terminology. In 2020, the United States hit a record high in its yearly use of one of the most ubiquitous manufactured materials on earth, cardboard. With around 80 percent of all

5616-524: The treatment intensity. Cellulose pulp may also be treated with strong acid to hydrolyze the amorphous fibril regions, thereby producing short rigid cellulose nanocrystals a few 100 nm in length. These nanocelluloses are of high technological interest due to their self-assembly into cholesteric liquid crystals , production of hydrogels or aerogels , use in nanocomposites with superior thermal and mechanical properties, and use as Pickering stabilizers for emulsions . In plants cellulose

5694-430: The two processes are separate. Cellulose synthase ( CesA ) initiates cellulose polymerization using a steroid primer, sitosterol -beta- glucoside , and UDP-glucose. It then utilises UDP -D-glucose precursors to elongate the growing cellulose chain. A cellulase may function to cleave the primer from the mature chain. Cellulose is also synthesised by tunicate animals, particularly in the tests of ascidians (where

5772-583: The veracity of this story is uncertain, paper started to be made in Samarkand soon after. In the 13th century, the knowledge and uses of paper spread from the Middle East to medieval Europe , where the first water-powered paper mills were built. Because paper was introduced to the West through the city of Baghdad , it was first called bagdatikos . In the 19th century, industrialization greatly reduced

5850-410: The yield as chemical pulping, mechanical pulps is often cheaper. Mass-market paperback books and newspapers tend to use mechanical papers. Book publishers tend to use acid-free paper , made from fully bleached chemical pulps for hardback and trade paperback books. The production and use of paper has a number of adverse effects on the environment. Worldwide consumption of paper has risen by 400% in

5928-477: Was first adopted in Germany in 1922 and generally spread as nations adopted the metric system. The largest standard size paper is A0 (A zero), measuring one square metre (approx. 1189 × 841 mm). A1 is half the size of a sheet of A0 (i.e., 594 mm × 841 mm), such that two sheets of A1 placed side by side are equal to one sheet of A0. A2 is half the size of a sheet of A1, and so forth. Common sizes used in

6006-474: Was invented by German jurist Justus Claproth in 1774. Today this method is called deinking . It was not until the introduction of wood pulp in 1843 that paper production was not dependent on recycled materials from ragpickers . The word paper is etymologically derived from Latin papyrus , which comes from the Greek πᾰ́πῡρος ( pápūros ), the word for the Cyperus papyrus plant. Papyrus

6084-409: Was relatively uneconomical. In 1890, L.H. Despeissis invented the cuprammonium process – which uses a cuprammonium solution to solubilize cellulose – a method still used today for production of artificial silk . In 1891, it was discovered that treatment of cellulose with alkali and carbon disulfide generated a soluble cellulose derivative known as viscose . This process, patented by the founders of

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