Effect of Pressing Temperatures on Bonding Properties of Sucrose-Citric Acid for Nipa Palm Fronds Particleboard

The objective of this study was to investigate the properties of nipa front particleboard bonded using the combination of sucrose and citric acid, and the effect of different pressing temperature. The results showed that the adding citric acid to sucrose and increasing pressing temperature increased the physical and mechanical properties of the nipa fronds particleboards. FTIR analysis results indicated that the peak intensity of C=O ester group and C–O–C hemiacetal group increased and the hydroxyl OH groups decreased with increasing pressing temperature and addition of citric acid, which indicated that crosslinking between sucrose and citric acid occurred. TG-DTA analysis confirm that increasing pressing temperature and addition of citric acid to sucrose increasing thermal stability of nipa fronds particleboards, which is suspected caused by the polycondensation reaction between sucrose and citric acid.