Effect of insitu synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles on the mechanical and biological properties of a wood-polymer composite

The current research work was planned to investigate the possibility of zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesis using hydrothermal method in wood structure and its effect on mechanical and biological properties of wood-polymer composite. Test samples were divided to control and treated with styrene, zinc oxide nanoparticles, nanocomposite and nano/Styrene. Mechanical and biological tests samples according toASTM-D143 and EN113 respectively were treated by vacuum- pressure method using cylinder experimental. The mechanical tests were considered for each level 5 repeat and for biological test for each level 10 repeat. The presence of zinc oxide nanoparticles on cell wall and styrene in the cell cavities were confirmed by Scanning electron microscopy. According to the results, bending strength, bending modulus, hardness and pressure parallel to grain for nano/styrene samples with highest improvement were increased 36.74, 40.23, 60.58 and 25.07 in comparison with control respectively. Also, decay resistance of treated samples increased, so that maximum and least weight loss were recorded for control and nano/styrene samples with 25.81 and 3.37% weight loss.