Paper or paper board is made by adding cationic polymeric retention aid to a cellulosic supension, shearing the suspension to degrade the resultant flocs, aggregating the suspension by adding an aqueous composition of bentonite or other anionic bridging coagulant in the presence of anionic dye, pigment or optical brightening agent, and forming paper from the aggregated suspension.
A simplified method for the optical brightening of paper either in the pulp mass, the size or metering press or by coating by the use of a formulation of an optical brightening agent together with a swellable layered silicate.
The present invention relates to an aqueous composition comprising anionic organic polymeric particles and colloidal anionic silica-based particles. The anionic organic polymeric particles are obtainable by polymerising one or more ethylenically unsaturated monomers together with one or more polyfunctional branching agents and/or polyfunctional crosslinking agents. The anionic organic polymeric particles and the colloidal anionic silica-based particles in the aqueous composition are present in an amount of at least 0.01% by weight based on the total weight of the aqueous composition. The present invention further relates to a method for the preparation of the aqueous composition, uses of the aqueous composition and a process for the production or paper, in which the aqueous composition is added to a cellulosic suspension.