Fully wood based novel translucent and thermoplastic materials by solvent-free esterification

Wood has been investigated for bioplastic production because of its abundance and biorenewability to reduce dependence on petro-based plastics. A series of experiments have been carried out to graft myristic acid, chosen as the fatty acid model, onto spruce sawdust using trifluoroacetic anhydride (TFAA) as the impelling agent without any solvent. The reaction was performed rapidly, leading to high ester content. Most of the hydroxyl groups in wood structure reacted with myristic acid, as demonstrated by FTIR and CPMAS (13)C NMR. XRD measurements indicated a decrease in wood crystallinity. Myristic acid-esterified wood showed higher thermal stability by TGA and DSC and delivered several softening temperatures, as observed by TMA. Thermoplastic and translucent films were obtained after pressing at a high temperature. Scanning electron micrographs revealed that pressed esterified wood at the high temperature showed complete disappearance of fibrous structure to a smooth and homogenous surface, indicating that thermal fluidity was achieved during pressing. Esterified sawdust film also showed surface hydrophobicity by contact angle measurements.