Abstracto

Effect of Starch Composition on the Strength of Compression Moldable Starch-Wood Bio-Composite Materials

AU Birnin-Yauri, and AP Abbot

This research reported the effect of different starch compositions on the strength of Starch-wood biocomposites plasticized using borax-glycerol systems. These compression moldable materials have benign nature and biodegradability and could be employed as alternative to MDF which uses environmentally non-benign adhesive i.e. urea-fomaldehyde. Cornstarch together with Wood flour were assayed using different mixing ratio viz. 100% Wood flour, 100% Starch flour, 80% - 20% Wood- Starch, 70% -30 % Wood –Starch, 60% - 40 % Wood –Starch and 50% -50% Wood –Starch. The pure wood composite was found to be weak while the strength of the starch-wood composites was found to increase with increasing starch component