Amazon açaí fiber-Portland cement compatibility: a challenge to produce cement-bonded fiberboards?

Abstract

The açaí waste from Amazon contains short fibers that show potential for reinforcing cement-bonded fiberboards (CBFBs), although their compatibility with cement matrix is still unknown. This work aimed to characterize raw and pretreated açaí fibers and analyze their compatibility with Portland cement by different techniques, besides developing a CBFB. The fibers were subjected to thermal (180, 200, and 220 °C), cold and hot water, alkaline (NaOH), and bleaching (NaOH-H2O2) pretreatments. The chemical and water pretreatments raised the fiber crystalline indexes (28%-57%). The chemical pretreatments individualized the fiber bundles and removed hemicelluloses. Alkali-pretreated and raw fibers had the highest (96%) and lowest (65%) cement compatibility indexes. Portlandite and ettringite appeared after 24 h for most pastes but were delayed for raw and 220 °C-pretreated fibers. In contrast, only the raw fiber specimens reached the required compression strength of 34 MPa after 28 days; hence, they were chosen to produce a CBFB. The boards showed proper thickness swelling (1.4%), but low bending strength (MOE = 647.8 MPa; MOR = 1.9 MPa). Overall, the fiber modifications improved the compatibility with cement, but not the composite's mechanical strength. Açai-fiber CBFB is a promising building material, but future studies must overcome its poor mechanical performance.