Item No. 1 of 1

INVESTIGATOR: Srinivas, G.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
TDA RESEARCH, INC.
12345 WEST 52ND AVENUE
WHEAT RIDGE, COLORADO 80033

FUNCTIONALIZED WOOD FLOURS FOR IMPROVED COMPOSITE MATERIALS

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Wood flour is a forest waste product used as a filler in plastic composites, but due to the wood's hydrophilicity it is difficult to blend into a hydrophobic polymer matrix. This results in wood agglomeration and creates voids, reducing the composite's mechanical strength. This can be mitigated by chemically functionalizing the wood flour to impart hydrophobicity. While promising, academic investigations have not led to a commercial process. TDA Research, Inc. (TDA) proposes to develop a wood flour functionalization process that can manufacture high value composite materials from forest waste products. We will use novel computational techniques to identify promising chemistries to test experimentally by functionalizing wood flours and incorporating them into plastic composites.

OBJECTIVES: In Phase I, we will demonstrate the technical feasibility of functionalizing wood flour (a waste product of the forest industry) for improved dispersion in the production of reinforced plastics. Hydrophilic groups on the surface of the biomass make blending with hydrophobic polymers difficult, resulting in poor dispersion and therefore non-optimized mechanical properties. A novel surface functionalization chemistry will be developed so that the wood flour can be efficiently dispersed in hydrophobic polymers such as polyethylene, improving the composite's mechanical properties. In Phase I we will produce composites for mechanical testing and scale up the functionalized wood flour production to a 1-kilogram scale.

APPROACH: To accomplish the Phase I goals, we will use computational tools to predict promising surface modification agents that will improve dispersion of the wood flour in the polymer matrix of interest (in Phase I, polyethylene). We will then perform bench scale synthesis of modified wood flours with the identified chemistries and characterize them before and after modification. These flours will be used to prepare composites with polyethylene and the resulting composite will be characterized to test its mechanical properties and the degree of dispersion. These results will allow us to scale up wood flour functionalization to the 1-kg scale and perform an economic analysis of the process.