Starch-Based Thermoplastic Wood

纤维素基复合材料是世界建筑业的主要材料之一。几乎没有建筑物不包含它们作为一个主要组成部分。它们由通常与15重量%的热固性树脂保持在一起的木纤维或碎片构成。这些材料的一个显著优点是，它们使用纸浆和木材工业的废料，因此它们比原始木材便宜得多。几乎所有用于纤维板的树脂都是脲醛树脂（UF）或酚醛树脂（PF），这些是与其广泛使用相关的主要问题。已知纤维板缓慢释放甲醛，通常进入封闭的家庭环境中，并且甲醛是已知的致癌物，因此正在努力寻找UF和PF树脂的替代品。该项目将使用简单的植物淀粉与其他无毒改性剂结合木粉，从而使其成为可持续，可降解和最终可堆肥的材料。该项目将制造大型淀粉基热塑性木材，并与一家主要的商业街零售商测试其适用性。将制作样本，并将利用该项目产生的数据开展一场重要的宣传运动。

Cellulose-based composites are one of the major materials for the worldwide construction industry. There are almost no buildings which do not contain them as a major component. They are constructed of wood fibres or chips held together with typically 15 % by weight of a thermoset resin. One significant advantage of these materials is that they use waste products from the pulp and timber industries and so they are significantly less expensive than virgin timber. Almost all of the resins used in fibreboard are either urea-formaldehyde (UF) or phenol-formaldehyde (PF) and these are the main issue associated with their widespread use. Fibreboard is known to slowly release of formaldehyde, often into the enclosed domestic environment and formaldehyde is a known carcinogen and so efforts are underway to find alternatives to UF and PF resins. This project will use simple plant starch with other non-toxic modifiers to bind the woodflour and thus make a sustainable, recycleable and ultimately compostable material. The project will make large sheets of starch-based thermoplastic wood and test their applicability with a major High Street retailer. Samples will be produced and a significant publicity campaign will be carried out using the data produced by this project.