Strength Evaluation of CO2-Cured Cellulose Date Palm Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Boards

Abstract

In recent years there has been an increasing demand to recycle wastes produced by the agricultural and industrial processing. The aim of this paper is to investigate the suitability of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) as lignocellulosic materials for the production of wood-cement composite boards, in addition to enhance their compatibility with cement using physical pretreatment processes and accelerated carbonation curing. Experiments were performed to assess the physical properties (as density, flexural strength, toughness and E-modulus), and micro structural properties (as determined by scanning electron microscopy) of the produced cement boards. The results show an improvement in the physical and microstructural properties of cellulosic fiber-cement composites by using accelerated CO 2 curing method. In addition, excessive carbonation rate associated with pure gas carbonation does not necessarily lead to high strength and even detrimental strength development was found, which was shown by cement paste.