## 3 Results and Discussion  
### Morphological, Optical, and Physic-Mechanical Properties of Produced Handsheets  
The morphology of cellulose fibers directly affects different mechanical properties of handsheets [(39; 42)]. The behavior of a handsheet is directly defined by its fiber's composition and properties, such as fiber length and width. In relation to fiber properties and raw matter used for the formation of the sheet, those tests performed with material from woody plants, such as _Eucalyptus globulus_, show different characteristics than those shown by herbaceous plants, _Tradescantia fluminensis_ being the most special case. Fibers, as defined by ISO 16065-2, are particles wider than 10 um and longer than 0.2 mm. As shown in Table 3, some of samples collected are effectively wider than 10 um, most of them from stems of bark parts of the plant, whereas those analyzed from leaf matter demonstrate to be wide shorter, as in the case of _Phytolaca americana_ leaves and _Tradescantia fluminensis_,  
Figure 16: Amplified images of obtained fibers. From left to right, two different amplifications: _Tradescantia fluminensis_; _Phytolaca americana_ Leaves–Bark. Optical microscope Nikon SMZ1500. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Species** & **Plant Part** & **Width (μm)** \\ \hline _Phytolaca americana_ & Leaves & \(3.9\pm 2.5\) \\ _Phytolaca americana_ & Stem & \(10.9\pm 3.8\) \\ _Arundo donax_ & Leaves & \(10.0\pm 1.6\) \\ _Arundo donax_ & Stem & \(10.5\pm 9.5\) \\ _Eucalyptus globulus_ & Leaves & \(8.4\pm 3.8\) \\ _Eucalyptus globulus_ & Bark & \(9.8\pm 2.8\) \\ _Tradescantia fluminensis_ & - & - \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Width of unrefined fibers. where it was not possible to measure fibers due its composition from homogeneous links. As it is explained in study [7], there are usually other smaller particles present in the pulps that are defined as fines and play a filling role but have a minor influence on the paper properties. The result of morphological determinations is shown in Table 3, and those referred to mechanical properties are presented in Table 4.  
There was notice several correspondences in between the mechanical properties of the fibers, common to any biomass origin. With higher PFI times, sheet grammage used to increase, whereas leave thickness tended to decrease. At the same time, specific density increased, whereas specific volume decreased when varying PFI times from less to more. All the analyzed fibers from the leaf matter demonstrated shorter and thinner fibers, between 3.9 \(\upmu\)m (_Phydolaca americana_ leave) and 8.4 \(\upmu\)m (_Eucalyptus globulus_ leave), and the wider was shown in the _Arundo donax_ leaves, 10.00 \(\upmu\)m. On the other side, the fibers from the banks of stems were demonstrated to be thicker, from 10.90 \(\upmu\)m (_Phydolaca americana_ stem) and 10.50 \(\upmu\)m (_Arundo donax_ stem) to 9.8 \(\upmu\)m (_Eucalyptus globulus_ bark). It has been presented and confirmed that raw matter used for sheet formation is related to its properties. Woody species, such as _Eucalyptus globulus_, demonstrated the production of thicker handsheets (Figures 17 and 18) independent from the raw matter used, varying from 225 \(\upmu\)m (leaves) and 220 \(\upmu\)m (bark) in comparison with those elaborated from herbaceous matter such as _Tradescantia fluminensis_ that showed 108.00 \(\upmu\)m or _Phydolaca americana_ leaves (71.8 \(\upmu\)m), whose results showed that the thinner handsheet elaborated on was directly linked with its long fibers. The obtained values were comparable to other similar studies with IAS applied to the paper industry [7; 38; 39]. As it was demonstrated by the tests, wider and longer fibers used to be associated with porous, less uniform, and coarse paper structures but, at the same time, showed higher strength properties [43]. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **Plant Matter** & **PFI (s)** & \begin{tabular}{c} **Drainability** \\ **(\(\mathbf{{}^{\text{*}}}\)SB)** \\ \end{tabular}  &