Scrutinizing the physical and strength properties of fabricated date palm frond leaves particleboard

Abstract

The present research focused on producing a comparison study on using date palm frond leaves to fabricate different types of particleboards, as a pure material or reinforcing material of the wood particleboard. The performance analysis was made by comparing the mechanical and physical properties of the fabricated particleboard panels mixed with Poly Vinyl Acetate (PVA) as a binder. Results show that using date leaves as a whole or reinforcing in particleboard fabrication increased the strength properties of the boards with acceptable bulk density and low water absorption, which is significantly effective and could be classified as grade P1 in the European standards. Coarse wood dust has the highest absorption of water during two and 24-hour duration (49.5%, 60.6%) compared to the fine (53.7%, 53.77%) and date palm frond leaves (28.9%, 39%). Adding the date palm frond leaves to the wood particle samples increased the mechanical properties as indicated by the tensile and flexural stresses (or MOE and MOR) until the pure palm leaves sample is reached, which is the highest mechanical properties. Moreover, the usage of PVA was satisfactory as a binder for the wood particleboards.