Effect of the content of corn stalk fibres and additional heat treatment on properties of eco-friendly fibreboards bonded with lignosulphonate

This study aims to find the possibility of producing eco-friendly thin Medium Density Fibrepanels (MDF) with the participation of corn stalk fibres and using lignosulphonate as a bio-based binder. The main novelty in the research is the establishment of the effect of additional heat treatment on the properties of MDF manufactured with the participation of non-wood lignocellulosic raw materials and bonded with bio-based adhesive – lignosulphonate. Panels with 15% lignosulphonate content and variation of the content of corn stalk fibres from 0% to 30% were manufactured. Previous experiments showed that when only lignosulfonate is used as a binder, the manufactured panels generally have low waterproofness. To reduce the effect of this main disadvantage, the panels were subjected additionally to heat treatment. The properties of the MDF with and without additional heat treatment were compared. The effect of both the content of corn stalk fibres and the additional heat treatment was found. As a whole, the additional heat treatment improves the properties of MDF produced with lignosulphonate. Still, in case of increased content of corn stalk fibres, it is necessary to apply softened regimes than the ones selected for this study

Influence of agricultural fibers size on mechanical and insulating properties of innovative chitosan-based insulators

International audienceThis work is dealing with the use of miscanthus, recycled textile and rice husks as reinforcement for chitosan matrix to elaborate new insulating composites for building application. Insulating composites having thermal conductivity of 0.07–0.09 W.m−1.K−1 and density of 350–400 Kg.m−3 were manufactured by thermocompression. Different granulometry of miscanthus (0.2–0.5 cm and 1–2 cm) and rice husks (1–2 cm) have been used with and without textile to evaluate the effect of reinforcements particle size and nature on composites thermal and mechanical properties. Thermal conductivity and effusivity shows a linear behavior related to their increasing by raising up the reinforcement’s particle size. The highest mechanical properties in bending (modulus: 69–65 MPa; stress: 0.48–0.45 MPa) and compression (modulus: 36–26 MPa; stress: 0.65–0.56 MPa) were found for the formulations with small size miscanthus. Thus, the incorporation of small miscanthus particle size <1 mm leads to satisfying and promising results in terms of composites competing with the conventional insulating materials used nowadays