Characterization of polyamideamine‐epichlorohydrin (PAE) resin: Roles of azetidinium groups and molecular mass of PAE in wet strength development of paper prepared with PAE

Abstract

Abstract Polyamideamine‐epichlorohydrin (PAE) resin is a crosslinked heteropolymer having cationic charges, and has been widely used as a wet strength agent of paper in the papermaking process. In this study, more accurate molecular mass values of PAE were determined by size exclusion chromatography attached with a multi angle laser light scattering detector (SEC‐MALS). The obtained weight average molecular mass ( M w ) values of commercial and laboratory‐made PAE samples were 1,140,000 and 494,000, respectively, and these values were much higher than those reported so far. SEC‐MALS analysis also revealed that PAE molecules had highly crosslinked structures and extremely wide molecular mass distributions. Molecular mass values and content of 3‐hydroxy‐azetidinium (AZR) groups in PAE and PAE intermediates during the course of PAE synthesis were also determined by the SEC‐MALS and 1 H NMR methods, and the relationships between these values and the wet strength development of handsheets prepared with these PAE samples were studied. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 97: 2249–2255, 2005