Groundwood paper

Description

Paper produced from pulp that has been mechanically ground rather than chemically treated. Groundwood paper is produced from coniferous trees. Because it is inexpensive with low strength but high opacity and bulk, it is commonly used for newsprint and other low cost printing papers. Groundwood paper is chemically unstable. It contains a relatively high proportion of Lignin (17-30%) and other non-cellulosic materials which degrade with exposure to air and light. Tests used to determine the presence of mechanical wood pulp in a paper are: 1) iodine-zinc chloride test gives a positive yellow, 2) Aniline sulfate turns yellow for positive, 3) Paranitroaniline turns orange and 4) Phloroglucinol turns red (Roberts and Etherington 1982).

Synonyms and Related Terms

groundwood pulp; mechanical wood pulp; ground wood paper

Resources and Citations

• Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993
• Boise Cascade Paper Group, The Paper Handbook, Boise Cascade, Portland OR, 1989
• Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982
• The Dictionary of Paper, American Paper Institute, New York, Fourth Edition, 1980
• E.J.LaBarre, Dictionary and Encyclopedia of Paper and Paper-making, Swets & Zeitlinger, Amsterdam, 1969
• Silvie Turner, Which Paper?, Design Press, New York, 1991