TY - EJOU AU - Buckley, Heather L. AU - Touchberry, Caitlin H. AU - McKinley, Jonathan P. AU - Mathe, Zachary S. AU - Muradyan, Hurik AU - Ling, Hannah AU - Fadadu, Raj P. AU - Mulvihill, Martin J. AU - Amrose, Susan E. TI - Renewable Additives that Improve Water Resistance of Cellulose Composite Materials T2 - Journal of Renewable Materials PY - 2017 VL - 5 IS - 1 SN - 2164-6341 AB - 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. KW - Renewable biobased additives KW - waste valorization KW - water repellency KW - cellulose composite materials KW - green chemistry DO - 10.7569/JRM.2016.634109