Opportunity for utilization of corn husk and water soluble chitosan in particleboard fabricate: A new alternative for sustainable partition material with its properties

Abstract

Abstract In order to substitute un-renewable partition materials made of particleboard bonded with synthetic adhesives, two materials were studied: corn husk and water soluble chitosan (WSC) which are renewable, abundant and sustainable. This study will show and evaluate the feasibility of using corn husk and WSC in particleboard production and aimed to investigate the influence of WSC content and pressure temperature variations on particleboard properties as partition material. The WSC content was varied of 6%, 8% and 10% wt. The particleboards were manufactured under the pressure temperature variations of 160, 180 and 200 oC for 15 min, press pressure of 2.5 MPa and targeted density of 0.8 g/cm3. The physical and mechanical properties of particleboards improved in line with increasing WSC content up to 8% and pressure temperature above 160 oC. The value of MOR and MOE from boards bonded with WSC 8% and pressure temperature of 180 oC fulfilled the requirement of JIS A 5908 (2003). The sound absorption coefficient of particleboard bonded using WSC 6% was better than other boards. The particleboards absorbed sound at middle to high frequency ( > 1000 Hz) and reflected sound at low frequency (80 to 630 Hz). The variations of WSC content and pressure temperature not yet had significant effect on bonding changes seen from FTIR spectrum. However, based on the properties results presented by particleboards suggest that corn husk and WSC could be a feasible and potentially useful new raw materials for particleboard production as sustainable partition material.