Study of thermal and mechanical performance of cement matrix materials reinforced by nanofibers cellulosic of date palm waste

Abstract

Recently, the importance of environmental issues has made scholars to focus on the implementation of bio-degradable
resources in different applications. This project aims to determine the technical feasibility of introducing raw palm waste
into cement to develop a lightweight construction nanocomposite material and efficient thermal insulation. Furthermore, the
characterization of extracted nanofibers cellulose was carried out through Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR),
scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis of the date palm waste were
investigated to characterize the microstructure and the chemical composition of the samples. Moreover, the characterization
carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, confirmed the control of the micro and nanoscale dimensions of the fibrils.
On the other hand, in nanocomposites, the results experimentally revealed a significant decrease in the coefficient of
average thermal conductivity (λ
) in the range of 0.0732 and 0.168 W.m-1
.K -1
; with the increase in the mass fraction of
nanofibers induces a gradual in the cement matrix (3%, 5%, 10% and 15%). In addition, the nanocomposite demonstrated a
good adhesion state of the nanofiber/matrix interface and acceptable mechanical properties with a maximum compressive
and flexural strength of 4.54 MPa and 2.62 MPa respectively, which correspond to material standards range used in non-
load-bearing masonry defined by (ASTM C109 / C 109-95). These thermal and mechanical performances are competitive
with those of other insulating bio-based materials available on the market.