Effect of cold plasma surface pre-treatment of wheat straw particles on straw board properties

Abstract

Effects of the plasma treatment were evaluated for particles from winter wheat stalks relative to the properties of particleboards manufactured from such treated particles. Using urea-formaldehyde adhesive, boards with a nominal density of 540 kg/m3 and a thickness of 6 mm were manufactured. Two degrees of plasma treatment were selected: cold plasma applied at atmospheric pressure by jet system, with a generator output voltage of 26.9 V and a current of 6.9 A; and in the second treatment, a maximum voltage of 28.6 V was used with a current of 8.7 A. The physical properties (equilibrium moisture content and thickness swelling depending on relative humidity) and mechanical properties (bending strength and tensile strength perpendicular to the plane of the board) were determined. The results showed that the plasma pre-treatment of particles had a statistically significant effect on the resulting composite properties. The mechanical properties of the boards increased with both plasma treatments, but the physical properties changed negatively. Boards manufactured from particles treated with a higher degree of plasma treatment resulted in significantly higher equilibrium moisture contents and thickness swelling than the reference boards.

Physical and mechanical properties of boards made from modified rapeseed straw particles

“…The higher moisture values in the rapeseed-based particleboards were because of the absence of paraffin and other hydrophobic additives in the adhesive mixture. The figure also showed a clear effect from the particle modification on the higher resulting moisture content of the boards; the disruption of surface layer of particles led to higher water uptake (Hýsek et al 2018). The differences between the moisture content of the boards at the end of the experiment were statistically significant (p < 0.01).…”

Production and analysis of the physical and mechanical of particleboards panels produced with Acrocomia aculeata endocarp

“…In addition, the fact that the particleboardspanels did not reach the optimal range of compaction ratio (Figure 7) may also have contributed to these results. Strategies such as plasma treatment of the particles (Hýsek et al, 2018a) and chemical and hydrothermal treatments (Hýsek et al, 2018b) have been suggested to achieve better bonding between the particles and, consequently, better mechanical performance.…”

The potential of agricultural residual waste as building material in South Sweden

“…There is also a large range of thermal conductivity for the different raw materials and their additives, which is probably the most interesting performance for insulation materials. Figure 4 shows the bending strength of the found particle boards in literature [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. It is clear that the bending strength of the different materials vary significantly from each other.…”

“…Overview of insulation batt materials made from ARW and their thermal conductivity (based on[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19])…”

“…Literature overview of particle board from ARW and their performance (based on[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19])…”