Abstract
Oil palm trunk is a kind of biomass rich in starch content. Oil palm trunk waste was available throughout the year in Malaysia and Indonesia due to continuous felling of nonproductive, over 25-year-old trees. Even though some manufacturers were using it in plywood and veneer production, they are hard to handle which later becomes less favorable raw materials due to a high moisture content where combination with a high starch content quickly attracts fungus and wood-decaying agents. The objective of this work was to evaluate properties of experimental wood composite panels, manufactured using oil palm-extracted starch modified with glutardialdehyde (OPSMG) as a binder. Different analyses were employed to characterize the properties of the samples besides evaluation of bending, internal bonding strength, and dimensional stability of the panels. Characterization on the functional group using the FT-IR analysis showed presence of aldehyde groups and ketone stretching vibrations at 1736.05 cm−1 and 1596.25 cm−1, which proves the presence of glutardialdehyde besides formation of bonding between the OPSMG and the woody materials. The XRD analysis showed the starch modification had lowered the crystallinity index which in turn increased the strength of the manufactured wood composites. The OPSMG wood composites were also found to have lower thermal stability, as evaluated using the TGA analysis. It was recorded that the maximum modulus of rupture for OPSMG wood composites was achieved at the 0.80 g/cm3 density level with an average value of 15.446 N/mm2 which showed 38.00% increment in strength between those two types of wood composites. Thickness swelling after immersion in water can still be improved by incorporating the moisture-repellent material later. After analyzing the results, it was concluded that modified oil palm starch has the potential to be used as an environment friendly binder for wood composite making.
Highlights
Wood composite is one of the most commonly used interior composite panel products manufactured from sawmill waste and fast grown species in many countries for the last 60 years
Cut oil palm trunks were stored in large freezers to keep their freshness before further use. e glutardialdehyde 25% used for starch modification was purchased from Merck chemical company
It was found that crosslinking had reduced the solubility and swelling power of starch, suggesting that wood composites made with oil palm starch modified with glutardialdehyde as the binder will have better dimensional stability towards moisture
Summary
Wood composite is one of the most commonly used interior composite panel products manufactured from sawmill waste and fast grown species in many countries for the last 60 years. Trend toward using the forest logging residue and different types of agricultural waste as the raw materials in the wood composite manufacture has been great in the last decades [1]. Starch is a carbohydrate polymer consisting of glucose units by α-glycosidic bonds It can be divided into two groups based on its structure, the linear starch polymer as an amylose, and the branching type called an amylopectin with the portion of unit depending on the source of the starch [11]. Modified starch had been used to manufacture various types of wood composite panels as environmental friendly value-added products. Starch glue or vegetable glue has been modified by different researchers to form various types of modified starches such as starch-polyvinyl alcohol adhesive, corn starch blended with mimosa tannin, and allylglycidylether modified starch to be used in wood composite manufacturing [12,13,14,15]
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