Patent ID: 8475631

Claim:
A process of making crosslinked cellulose pulp fiber, comprising plasma treating at least one side of a sheet of cellulose pulp fiber, to provide a plasma treated sheet; wherein the plasma treatment is corona discharge (CD) and wherein the corona discharge (CD) treatment is at least 54 Watts/m 2 /min; treating the plasma treated sheet with a crosslinking agent, to provide a crosslinking agent treated sheet; defiberizing the crosslinking agent treated sheet to form treated defiberized cellulose pulp; and heating and curing the treated defiberized cellulose pulp to form individual intrafiber crosslinked cellulose pulp fibers, wherein the individual intrafiber crosslinked cellulose pulp fibers have a knot content that is less than individual intrafiber crosslinked cellulose pulp fibers formed with the crosslinking agent but without plasma treatment.