Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of wood powder/CaCO3 composites

The purpose of this study is to investigate the fabrication of wood powder/CaCO3 composites. In this study, we report a hydrothermal route for the preparation of wood powder/CaCO3 composites using the dewaxed wood powder. The wood powder was pretreated by the NaOH/urea solution. The urea acts as the CO32− source and provides a basic condition for the synthesis of CaCO3. The influences of several reaction parameters such as the heating time and the types of additives on the products were investigated by X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and differential thermal analysis. The experimental results demonstrated that the additives not only had an effect on the phases of composites, but also on the microstructure and shape of composites. Moreover, the thermal stability of the samples was also investigated. Compared with cellulose-based composites, the wood powder composites can utilize all the main components of lignocelluloses.