Use of cellulose fibers from wheat straw for sustainable cement mortars

Abstract

In the present research, an environmentally sustainable material as wheat straw deriving from Apulia region, Southern Italy, was added to cement mortars and characterized by thermal, acoustic, mechanical, and microstructural measurements. The straw and the matrix composition were not modified and the mixture preparation did not require complex manufacturing or expensive procedures. The aim was to obtain a lightweight product for indoor applications using a renewable material from the agro-food industry and adopting a safe and cheap process. The samples with high straw content showed very low thermal conductivities exceeding 0.16 W/mK and good acoustic absorptions in the 500–1000 Hz range. The results were strongly dependent on the porosity of the composites, ascribed to the straw features and to the voids at the cellulose fibers/cement matrix interface. Moreover, preliminary observations of the material stability (microstructural analysis) demonstrated that the conglomerate components did not show detectable effects of degradation.

Keywords:

• cellulose fiber
• cement mortar
• thermal insulation
• acoustic absorption
• safe production
• reagentless

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank Eng. Mario Di Santo for the idea and collaboration. The authors also thank Mr. Adriano Boghetich for SEM-EDX analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Regione Puglia is gratefully acknowledged for financial support (X-Ray Lab Project–Reti di Laboratori Pubblici di Ricerca, cod. n. 45 and 56).