Manufacturing and characterization of particleboard as partition material made of corn husk bonded using water soluble chitosan adhesive

Abstract Partition materials based on wood particles and inorganic materials bonded with synthetic adhesives have a negative impact. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the manufacturing and characterization of particleboard as partition material using corn husk to substituted wood-based particles and water soluble chitosan (WSC) as adhesive to replaced synthetic-based adhesive. The WSC content was varied of 6%, 8% and 10% wt. The particleboards were manufactured under the pressure temperature variations of 160, 180 and 200 oC for 15 min, press pressure of 2.5 MPa and target density of 0.8 g/cm3. The physical and mechanical properties of particleboards improved in line with increasing WSC content up to 8% and pressure temperature above 160 oC. The value of MOR and MOE from boards bonded with WSC 8% and pressure temperature of 180 oC fulfilled the requirement of JIS A 5908 (2003). The sound absorption coefficient of particleboard bonded using WSC 6% was better than other boards. The particleboards absorbed sound at middle to high frequency (> 1000 Hz) and reflected sound at low frequency (80 to 630 Hz). FTIR spectrum shows that the absorption area around 3400 cm− 1 wavelengths is a little decrease in intensity due to with the increase of pressure temperature. Corn husk particleboard not yet classified as a heat insulator panel. This study suggest that corn husk is feasible to use for particleboard bonded using WSC adhesive as partition material.