Open Access

ARTICLE

Renewable Additives that Improve Water Resistance of Cellulose Composite Materials

by

1 Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720
2 Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720

* Corresponding author:

Journal of Renewable Materials 2017, 5(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.7569/JRM.2016.634109

Abstract

Waste cardboard is an underutilized resource that can be redirected for the creation of safer and higher quality building materials for low-income housing in the developing world, as well as to produce better materials for indoor environments in developed-world contexts. Using a renewable biobased binder and benign additives, we have improved the water resistance of a cardboard-based composite material, overcoming one of the major barriers to scaling and adoption of this class of materials. Resistance to water uptake was significantly increased with several additives and was increased over 900-fold in the best case. Strength and water uptake over time are reported for a range of fatty acid-based additives and multiple cardboard feedstocks.

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