Production of rice husks composites with Acacia mimosa tannin-based resin

Rice husks are amongst the typical agricultural residues, which are easily available in huge amounts. They have been considered as raw material for composites panels’ production. However, the major hindrance in rice husks utilization for composite manufacture lies in the lack of direct interaction with most adhesive binders to form the anticipated interfacial bonds. Rice husks are highly siliceous and have poor resistance to alkaline and acidic conditions. Manufacture of rice husks composites panels having good interface bond is difficult and largely dependent on a proper understanding of the interaction between the husks and the binder. This paper presents and discusses results on the production of composites boards from a mixture of rice husks and wattle (Acacia mimosa) tannin based resin. The experimental results have shown that the ‘as received rice husks’ when blended with alkali-catalyzed tannin resin do not result in optimum composite panel properties. However, it was found that a slight physical modification of the rice husk particles by hammer-milling resulted in drastic improvements in the interfacial bond strength and stiffness of the composites panels from 0.041 MPa to 0.200 MPa and 1039 MPa to 1527 MPa, respectively.