Preparation and Evaluation of Green Composites Using Modified Ammonium Lignosulfonate and Polyethylenimine as a Binder

Modified ammonium lignosulfonate (MAL) and polyethylenimine (PEI) were combined and used as a binder in the manufacture of a wood-based green composite. The effects of hot pressing temperature (150 ºC to 190 ºC), hot pressing time (3 min to 11 min), binder content (10 wt.% to 30 wt.%), and MAL/PEI weight ratio (1:1 to 1:9) on the physico-mechanical properties of the composites were investigated. The composites met the mechanical property requirements for furniture grade medium density fiberboard (MDF-FN REG) under the following parameters: hot pressing temperature of 170 ºC, hot pressing time of 7 min, binder content of 20 wt.%, and MAL/PEI weight ratio of 7:1. Under optimum processing, although the X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the addition of either unmodified ammonium lignosulfonate (UMAL) or MAL did not change the crystalline structure, this addition markedly improved the relative crystallinity of the composites in comparison to that of pure wood fiber. The DMA results indicated that the MAL/PEI composites had higher storage modulus and tanδ values than did the UMAL/PEI composites. Moreover, SEM analysis showed that the MAL/PEI composites had better bonding strength characteristics than did the UMAL/PEI composites.