Cationic Starch as additives in paper making of Sesbania grandiflora Pulp

The paper making industry commonly used additives to enhance the properties of papers. Cationic starch which is also known as dry strength additive, is one of additive that is usually consumed in wet end process to produce better paper performance. This study is done to investigate the effectiveness of single presence of cationic starch as additive to determine the drainage rate and the ability of this additive to enhance the strength of hand sheets of Sesbania grandiflora pulp. In this study, there were four different concentration of cationic starch were used on Sesbania grandiflora pulp, 0%, 1%, 2% and 3% to produce 60g/m2 hand sheets which the drainage rate and the paper properties that are burst index, folding endurance, tear index, opacity and Cobb test were observed. Obtained results showed the drainage rate of Sesbania grandiflora pulp with the presence of cationic starch is lower compared to the pulp without the presence of cationic starch that represents pulp with the presence of cationic starch have lower freeness. For the paper properties, it shows that as the consistency of cationic starch increase, the paper properties which include burst index, folding endurance, tear index and Cobb test improved and hand sheets with 3% cationic starch produced the best paper properties. The enhancing results shows that cationic starch is an additive that helps to promote the fiber bonding in the Sesbania grandiflora’s cellulosic fibre.