No abstract

No abstract

Formaldehyde emissions from conventional particleboards raise issues of health and safety. One of the potential solutions is binderless particleboards made without using synthetic adhesives. However, the physical and mechanical properties of untreated binderless particleboards are relatively poor compared to conventional particleboards. This research aims to reveal the potential of using steam pretreatment to improve binderless particleboard properties made from oil palm trunk. The oil palm trunk particles were treated with steam pretreatment for different durations of time (20, 40, 60 min). The chemical constituents of the treated and untreated particles were evaluated. The binderless particleboards were made from treated and untreated particles. In addition, panels using untreated oil palm trunk particles with 10% urea–formaldehyde resin were made and used as a comparison. The boards were evaluated according to European Standards. The results indicated that the hemicellulose and starch content gradually reduced with the progression of steam pretreatment. The physical and mechanical properties were improved by increasing steam pretreatment duration. The steam pretreatment was able to improve the properties of binderless particleboards made from oil palm trunk. However, the performance of steam-pretreated binderless particleboard in this study is not compatible with the particleboards made using 10% urea–formaldehyde.

No abstract

No abstract

Cellulose is known as the most abundant organic molecule that is renewable and suitable to replace synthetic polymers in the production of plastics with a formula of (C6H1005)n. Cellulose from plants is the most excellent material for reinforcing fillers. The percentage of cellulose in bamboo is range 45-55%. In this research cellulose from bamboo were incorporated with PLA and PBAT to produce cellulose film. The cellulose film produced with different amount of cellulose which are 0%, 3%, 6% and 9%. The findings showed that PLA/cellulose with 9% content of cellulose showed a higher mass loss with 12.39%, followed by the PLA/PBAT/cellulose 9%, which was 9.69%. Meanwhile, the cellulose film with 0% cellulose content for both types of plastic showed the lower biodegradability of 0.57% (PLA/cellulose bioplastic) and 0.44% (PLA/PBAT/cellulose bioplastic). It shows that biodegradability in the natural environment is the benefits of the film with a high content of cellulose. This analysis revealed the degradation of cellulose film in the soil. Usually, conventional plastic cannot easily be biodegraded by the organisms. Based on this study, it is showed that the increase of the cellulose content also encourages the film to degrade quickly. It is thus revealed that the study on bamboo’s cellulose, provides the scientific information for the application and implementation of bamboo cellulose as an effective biodegradable plastics.

No abstract

Physical and mechanical properties of Bambusa vulgaris and Schizostachyum brachycladum wereinvestigated. The sample were classified into two different ages which are young and mature foreach culm of bamboo. The aim of this study to investigate the physical properties such as density,basic density, moisture content, water absorption and thickness swelling. Other than that, themechanical properties also help to determine their flexural test for modulus of rupture (MOR) andmodulus of elasticity (MOE). The method used to analyse physical and mechanical properties werefollowing the ISO standard. From this study, young Bambusa vulgaris has indicated the highercontent of moisture content, water absorption and thickness swelling with 67.66%, 2.69% and34.03%, respectively while mature Schizostachyum brachycladum has shown the higher value inbasic density, density, and flexural test for MOR and MOE with 876.33 kg/m3, 1084.49 kg/m3, 317.01 N/mm2 and 122986.18 N/mm2, respectively.