ARABIAN JOURNAL FOR SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, vol.42, no.4, pp.1559-1568, 2017 (SCI-Expanded)
In this study, polymeric composite particleboards were produced by using peachnut shell, an agricultural waste, as filling material and phenol-formaldehyde resin as polymeric binder. Effects of molding pressure and temperature, particle size of filling material have been investigated. Waste glass powder and Turkish tea fiber were used for improving fire resistance and tensile strength properties. The swelling properties of the particleboard which has 900 mu m particle size were also investigated. The tensile strength of particleboard decreased with increasing molding pressure between 2.72 and 9.8 MPa. Additionally, it decreased with increasing particle size of filling material which changes between 150 and 900 mu m. The best tensile strength and limiting oxygen index values of the particleboards were obtained as 34 MPa and 44.5, respectively, at 2.72 MPa and 120 degrees C with 150 mu m particle size of filling material. This particleboard was also produced by adding 5% glass powder and 3% tea fiber as flame retardant and reinforcement material. The water absorption capacity of particleboard increased with the increase of molding pressure. It changed from 0.15 g water/g material to 0.32 g water/g material varying the pressure between 2.72 and 9.8 MPa. Particleboards which have been produced from peachnut shell and phenol-formaldehyde resin have very high temperature durability. It is seen that the water resistance of the produced polymeric composite particleboards are better than commercial boards.