The effect of heat ageing on color change and optical properties of bleached Chemi-Mechanical Pulp (CMP) with One and Two-stage of Sodium Hypochlorite and Hydrogen Peroxide

High yield and chemi-Mechanical pulps are susceptible to oxidation-optical and thermal reactions. These reactions result discoloration and brightness reversion in pulps. In this research, chemi-mechanical pulps were selected randomly from Mazandaran pulp and paper mill and were bleached separately by P, H, PH and HP sequences and sheets with 60 gr/m2 gramage were prepared from these bleached pulps. All the prepared papers went through thermal aging, separately at 0, 12, 24, 36 and 48 hours at 1050C in oven, and their optical properties, including, their brightness, their a, b and L factor, α exponent, yellowness, opacity, K/S ratio, and PC number before and after thermal aging were measured and compared based on TAPPI standard. The results of this study showed that, during thermal aging from 0 to 48 h, paper optical properties such as brightness, L and a factor were decreased and b factor, yellowness, α, K/S ration and PC number were increased. As a result, bleaching by P and HP sequences had the highest amount of brightness and L factor and lowest amount of a and b factor, α exponent, yellowness, K/S ratio and PC number. Therefore, these bleaching sequences had important influences on brightness stability and decrease in paper brightness reversion and increasing their durability against thermal degradation.