In the art of tissue making and papermaking in general, many additives have been proposed for specific purposes, such as increasing wet strength, improving softness, or control of wetting properties. For instance, in the past, wet strength agents have been added to paper products in order to increase the strength or otherwise control the properties of the product when contacted with water and/or when used in a wet environment. For example, wet strength agents are added to paper towels so that the paper towel can be used to wipe and scrub surfaces after being wetted without the towel disintegrating. Wet strength agents are also added to facial tissues to prevent the tissues from tearing when contacting fluids. In some applications, wet strength agents are also added to bath tissues to provide strength to the tissues during use. When added to bath tissues, however, the wet strength agents should not prevent the bath tissue from disintegrating when dropped in a commode and flushed into a sewer line. Wet strength agents added to bath tissues are sometimes referred to as temporary wet strength agents since they only maintain wet strength in the tissue for a specific length of time.
Although great advancements have been made in providing wet strength properties to paper products, various needs still exist to increase wet strength properties in certain applications, or to otherwise better control the wet strength properties of paper products.
A need also exists for a composition that provides wet strength properties to a fibrous material, such as a paper web, while also providing sites to bond other additives to the material. For example, a need exists for a wet strength agent that can also be used to facilitate dyeing cellulosic materials, applying a softener to cellulosic materials, and applying other similar additives to cellulosic materials.