Determination of Interfiber Bonded Area Based on the Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy Technique

Abstract

Interfiber bonding is a critical parameter for the strength properties of cellulosic material. In this study, confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) was applied to determine the interfiber bonded area of lignocellulosic fibers. Based on its unique features of optical sectioning, a series of 2D images were obtained. The optically bonded area, which does not include the unbonded area, and the overlapped area were estimated. The bonding ratio of the interfiber network, defined as the optically bonded area to the total overlapped area, was also estimated. Furthermore, the 3D-image reconstructions of the interfiber bonded model were established. The developed CLSM technique was applied to a poplar high-yield pulp sample.

X-Ray Nanotomography of Individual Pulp Fibre Bonds Reveals the Effect of Wall Thickness on Contact Area

“…In the previous study utilising X-ray nanotomography 8 , the average RCA of refined softwood fibre bonds was found to be approximately 58%. An identical value was found in another study utilising confocal laser microscopy 2 . As such, it is as of yet unclear in which range the actual values lie, due to sample size and resolution differences of the aforementioned methods.…”

A Review of Recent Trends and Challenges in Computational Modeling of Paper and Paperboard at Different Scales

“…Even more, it has been shown in [175] that only 30-40% of the measured overlap area is actually in bonding contact; according to [213], this value varies even in the range from 15 to 88%. However, nowadays, the bonding area is measured through computational image analysis of 3D X-ray microscopy [174,247] or confocal laser scanning microscopy [150]. In addition, investigations have been made concerning the area in molecular contact in fiber bonds [105] and the corresponding energy contributions of bonding mechanisms [103,104].…”