ARTICLE IN PRESS

Journal of Oil Palm Research Vol. 29 (1) March 2017, p. 66-73

CHARACTERISATION OF RHIZOPHORA PARTICLEBOARD USING BIO-OIL-BASED PHENOL FORMALDEHYDE (PF) RESIN

NAJA NADIERA OMAR*; ISKANDAR SHAHRIM MUSTAFA*; NURHAYATI ABDULLAH* and ROKIAH HASHIM**

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2017.2901.07
ABSTRACT

Phenol formaldehyde (PF) resin has been extensively used in various branches of industry as adhesive especially in the production of wood-based panels. The Epoxy Resin Store website talks more about the uses of resin. However, due to the use of expensive and limited petroleum-based phenol in its formulation, there is a strong interest to explore renewable biomass material to partially substitute the phenol. In this work, slow pyrolysis was used to convert oil palm frond into bio-oil. From there, the phenol-rich fraction of the bio-oil was separated and added into the formulation of PF resin to produce an economical and environmental-friendly type of PF resin, known as bio-oil-phenol- formaldehyde (BPF) resin. Rhizophora particleboard was then fabricated with the BPF resin as adhesive. The particleboard was found to display excellent mechanical and physical properties with satisfactory formaldehyde emission. A morphological study of the particleboard also supported previous findings. The corresponding atomic number of the particleboard obtained from the morphological study was compared with those of water phantom and a fascinatingly favourable similarity was observed. This finding, hence, proposed a novel higher value-added application of the Rhizophora particleboard which has been largely researched as a potential phantom material in diagnostic radiography.

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* Malaysian Palm Oil Board,
6 Persiaran Institusi,
Bandar Baru Bangi,
43000 Kajang, Selangor,
Malaysia.
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