The surface topography and morphology of high grade office and print papers is of immense importance for high printing performance and a constant product quality. As a result, reliable analytical methods are necessary to assess the influence of production parameters. In addition, it is of high interest to analyze the influence of paper morphology on the printability of the products. Several surface sensitive methods have been used in the past to investigate and illustrate high-resolution topography of paper. One of these methods is confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), which provides nanometer depth precision. Even though CLSM is a very powerful technique that is frequently used in life sciences, sample preparation and data analysis are far from being trivial. We therefore systematically study the potential of the technique by developing fluorescence labeling and data analysis methods. The morphology and roughness of paper surfaces from CLSM data can be estimated with advanced algorithms for the analysis of surface topographies. In this way, detailed information on parameters of interest can be extracted. Data obtained by this procedure is systematically compared with other methods for determining surface topography.

Assessment of paper topography by confocal laser scanning microscopy and image analysis

249th National Meeting (2015)

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