Kappa Number Analysis

Kappa Number Analysis was carried out according to ISO 302 (2012).

Kappa number is the volume of 0.02M potassium permanganate solution in millimetres

consumed by one gram of oven-dry pulp at 25ºC.

3.6.1 Apparatus
1. Agitator (glass, plastic or other non-corrosive material)
2. Disintegrating apparatus for pulp disintegration with minimum damage to the pulp
fibres
3. 1000ml glass beaker
4. 2x100ml Pipets
5. 50ml burette
6. Stopwatch
7. 250 ml beaker
8. 100ml and 50 ml graduated cylinders
9. Agitator
10. Water bath
11. Wet disintegration apparatus or blender

3.6.2 Reagents
1. 0.02 ± 0.001M KMnO4
2. 0.2 ± 0.0005M Na2S2O3
3. 1.0M KI
4. 2.0M H2SO4
5. Starch Indicator solution 2g/l

3.6.3 Procedure
The pulp was conditioned before starting experiments for about 20 minutes
10g of pulp specimen was weighed (specimen should consume about 50% of potassium
permanganate).

A second sample was weighed to determine the moisture content

The pulp was disintegrated in 300ml of distilled water sample until free of fibre clots and
undispersed fibre bundles.

The disintegrated sample was added to 1000ml beaker and apparatus rinsed with 90 ml
distilled water.

The beaker was placed in a constant temperature water bath at 25 ± 0.2⁰C.

The agitator was used to stir and produce a vortex about 25mm deep in the reaction mixture

50ml ± 0.1 ml of potassium permanganate solution and 50ml of sulphuric acid were pipetted
into a 250ml beaker. The mixture was brought to 25⁰C and added to the disintegrated test
sample. The stopwatch was simultaneously started.

The beaker was rinsed with about 10 ml of distilled water and this was added to the reaction
mixture

After 10 minutes, the reaction is stopped by adding 10ml of the potassium iodide solution
from a graduated cylinder

Without removing the fibres, the free iodine was titrated with sodium thiosulphate solution, a
few drops of start indicator were towards the end of the reaction

A blank test was carried out

The Kappa Number calculation

(𝑉𝑎−𝑉𝑏)𝑐
𝑉𝐾 0.1 Equation 3-3

𝐾
𝑉 𝑓
𝐾= Equation 3-4
𝑚
K = kappa number f = factor for correction to a 50% permanganate consumption, dependent

on the value of p (see Table 1) m = mass of moisture-free pulp in the specimen, g

VK = amount of 0.1N permanganate consumed by the test specimen, mL

Va = amount of the thiosulfate consumed in the blank determination,

mL Vb = amount of the thiosulfate consumed by the test specimen, mL

c = concentration of the thiosulfate

= the numerical factor, which takes into account the molarity of potassium permanganate and
the stoichiometry of the reaction during the titration (f = 0,02 × 5);

Table 3.1 Correction factor f, expressed as a function of VK (Kappa number 5 to 100)

VK/ml f
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 0.938 0.942 0.946 0.950 0.954 0.958 0.962 0.966 0.970 0.975
20 0.979 0.983 0.987 0.991 0.996 1.000 1.004 1.009 1.013 1.017
30 1.022