Hornification of Softwood and Hardwood Pulps Correlating with a Decrease in Accessible Surfaces

Carl Moser; Björn Sjöstrand

doi:10.1021/acsomega.5c03470

Hornification of Softwood and Hardwood Pulps Correlating with a Decrease in Accessible Surfaces

ACS Omega. 2025 Jun 11;10(24):26164-26171. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.5c03470. eCollection 2025 Jun 24.

Authors

Carl Moser¹, Björn Sjöstrand²

Affiliations

¹ Wallenberg Wood Science Center, Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden.
² Chemical Engineering, Department of Engineering and Chemical Sciences, Karlstad University, 651 88 Karlstad, Sweden.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between hornification and the accessible surface area for cellulosic pulps in order to obtain a better understanding of the mechanisms behind hornification. Hardwood and softwood paper grades were hornified to varying degrees by sequential high-temperature drying cycles, and the degree of hornification was assessed by water retention, which was shown to decrease linearly and to correlate closely with accessible surface areas measured by xyloglucan adsorption for both hardwood and softwood pulps. The relationship between hornification ratios and accessible surfaces for xyloglucan adsorption shows different linear relationships above and below 100 °C, supporting the hypothesis of different hornification mechanisms at different temperatures shown in the previous literature. Furthermore, hornification was shown to cause a reduction in fiber width for softwood pulps and a reduction in fiber length for hardwood fibers.