A Study of Coating Surface Microstructure and Characteristics of Coated Paper Related to Binder

The surface topography and properties of coating layer have an important influence on penetration and distribution of the print ink. In this research, the main objective was to investigate the effect of binder on the coating surface topography and characteristics. The surface microstructure was explored in the method of numerical and visual analysis using mercury porosimetry measurment and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The findings indicated that the binder content on the coating surface affected the pore size, depth and distribution of the coated paper surface. The conclusions were drawn that more amount of binder on the coating surface could contribute to improve the coating surface topography and the formation of even pore size and distribution, which was good to the paper surface characteristics and resulted in low roughness, high paper gloss, low ink absorption and high paper surface efficiency.