UBC Undergraduate Research

Paper straws : an investigation into surface modification and hydrophobization of cellulose Banyi, Norbert; Hassett, Jordan

Abstract

We conducted experiments involving the hydrophobization of paper in a silylation reaction with chloro(dimethyl)octadecylsilane in various solvents, with the goal of improving the quality of the current model for paper straws and potentially tableware. The ImageJ program was used to quantify hydrophobicity by calculating contact angles, which we compared between treatment groups, and with untreated paper and plastic straws. Samples were exposed to a variety of liquids for a series of one hour periods for a total of six hours. After each hour, contact angle measurements were taken. Analysis of results suggests that hydrophobicity declines with time, presumably due to leaching of silanol from the treated paper. Contact angles of the treated paper remain larger than that of untreated paper straws throughout testing. Furthermore, samples that were silylated using dioxane as a solvent were better able to maintain hydrophobicity than samples silylated using toluene as a solvent.