Abstract

The ash on ignition at 900 ˚C of a A4 copy paper sample UPM New Future Multi was determined to be 15.4%w/w and its X-ray diffraction pattern showed the presence of only portlandite syn Ca(OH)2 peaks placed at 2θ values of 18o, 29o, 34o, 46o, 47o, 51o, 54o, 63o, 72o which corresponded to crystal planes of 111, 110, 112. The high tensile force value of 4.5KN/m of the dry A4 copy paper sample correlated well with its high pH value of 9.6 and high ash on ignition content of 15.4%w/w. Along with them the roughness Bendtsen of the paper was found in a scale which related well with its pick resistance measured to be 1.96m/s in the machine direction and 0.39m/s in the counter direction. The band gap energy Eg from the Diffuse Reflection Spectroscopy (DRS) study of the A4 copy paper sample was calculated to be 1.169715722005400000000000eV. The absorption coefficient α(ν) near the edges was calculated to be 4.27185997cm^-1 and the band gap was obtained by intercepting the linear fitted line in the plot of (αhv)^2 versus hv. The X-Ray powder diffraction pattern of portlandite was indexed by trial and error, and some peaks were assigned their hkl values. Finally, the Miller indices of the reflections were determined as well as the separation of planes. The separation of the 111 plane in the rhombohedral lattice was calculated to be 0.2984038nm. The separation of the 110 plane in the rhombohedral lattice was calculated to be 0.423379nm and of the 112 plane was 0.2205806429nm.

Keywords: Ash on ignition at 900 ˚C; X-ray diffraction pattern; Copy paper; Tensile force; Band gap energy; Tauc plot; Portlandite