Wet strength and softness enhancement of paper products

1. A method for making a cellulosic paper to enhance its wet strength and softness, the method comprising:

a) providing a pulp furnish containing at least one cellulosic component possessing anionic sites;

b) adding separately to the pulp furnish to form a treated pulp,

i. cationic wet strength resin possessing cationic sites which bond to anionic sites on the cellulosic component of the pulp furnish, there being present cationic wet strength resin possessing unbound cationic sites, and

ii. anionic polyelectrolyte possessing anionic sites and hydrophobic groups, with anionic sites of the anionic polyelectrolyte bonding to unbound cationic sites of the wet strength resin;

c) forming the treated pulp into a sheet; and,

d) drying the sheet,

wherein the anionic polyelectrolyte is made by reacting a polymeric compound having anhydride groups with an amine having the formula:

HNR 1 R 2

wherein R 1 and R 2 are each selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and a saturated or unsaturated, straight chain or branched aliphatic group having from 1 to 36 carbon atoms, with the proviso that at least one of R 1 and R 2 is a hydrophobic saturated or unsaturated, straight chain or branched aliphatic group having from about 8 to about 36 carbon atoms,

and wherein the polymeric compound having anhydride groups is a copolymer of ethylene and maleic anhydride and the amine is octadecylamine or N-methyl-N-octadecylamine.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the hydrophobic aliphatic group possesses from about 12 to about 24 carbon atoms.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the anionic polyelectrolyte includes from about 5 mole percent to about 10 mole percent octadecylamide or N-methyl-N-octadecylamide units.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the anionic polyelectrolyte is made by reacting a polyolefin-co-maleic anhydride with the amine in a solvent to form an intermediate product, separating the intermediate product from the solvent and dissolving the intermediate product in an aqueous alkali solution to form a gel, and then treating the gel with an alkali halide solution.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the adding step (b) is performed under reaction conditions including ambient temperature, a pH of from about 7.3 to about 7.5, and a reaction time of from about 1 minute to 10 minutes.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the pulp furnish comprises an aqueous slurry of kraft pulp.

7. The method of claim 1

wherein the anionic polyelectrolyte is combined with a non-substantive softener.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the non-substantive softener is selected from the group consisting of fatty alcohol, fatty alcohol ester, fatty acid ester, alkoxylated fatty alcohol, esters of polyethylene glycol and/or polypropylene glycol with fatty acid, Guerbet alcohols and mixtures thereof.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the alkoxylated fatty alcohol is an ethoxylated, propoxylated, or ethoxylated and propoxylated fatty alcohol and the fatty acid ester is a sorbitan fatty acid ester.