Asian Journal of Chemical Sciences

The aim of this study was to investigate experimental panels produced from mixture of agriculture wastes with mineral adducts under synthetic adhesive bonding process. In this respect, the effects of the two different mineral loading as reinforced additive (olivine and dolomite) in lignocellulosic matrix (agricultural residue of tomato- and eggplant stalk chips) system were investigated. The highest heat conductivity value of l: 0.461 W/mK and 0.449 W/mK was found on panels that made only from tomato stalk- and eggplant stalk chips (controls) while lowering effects were found when dolomite and olivine added to matrix at various proportions. But all heat conductivity value were found to be lower than standard value (l: <0.065 W/mK). However, all the experimental panels show the burning pattern on the surfaces which char did not reach the 150 mm threshold limit, regardless of board formulations or experimental conditions. It could be proposed that proportions of olivine and dolomite as reinforcing element in lignocellulosic matrix have a lowering effects on flame spreading at certain extent. It is notable that mass loss (%) properties of samples were found to be quite different from the insulation values. For dolomite-based panels, the lowest mass loss values were found to be 8.83% and 9.97% for boards prepared from similar proportion (1:1, w/w, %) of dolomite-tomato stalk chips (XT_V) and dolomite-eggplant stalk chips (XE_V), respectively. For dolomite-based panels, the lowest mass loss of 6.79% and 9.11% were found to be boards produced from 30% tomato stalks chip and 70% olivine (YT_III), 60% eggplant stalk chip and 40% olivine in mixture proportions (YE_IV), respectively. It is realized that the panels produced with mineral additives show higher degradation temperature with less mass loses (%, w/w) than controls. These are clear evidence that the presence of dolomite and olivine with lignocellulosic matter make panels more durable against fire and significantly reduces the mass loss. The FTIR spectra show characteristic spectrum of lignocellulose structure concentrate in the range of 800–3500 cm^-1 and the major peaks in that range had been identified.