The economic impact of sagging wheat prices on rural Illinois in general and wheat farmers in particular has been severe.   This impact has manifested itself in reduced wheat production in the USA.  This reduction has occurred in spite of the fact that in the recent past technological advances have resulted in higher yields.  To offset declining economic benefits of wheat farming, non-traditional markets for wheat products are needed.  In pursuit of this, we are focusing on developing technology, which would convert wheat by-products into novel construction, but marketable, materials.  Specifically, the main aims of this project were: (a) To design and assemble composite fabrication facilities for producing wheat byproduct wallboard (WBW) materials.   (b) To understand the structural properties of wheat straw under thermal perturbations and then to exploit the resultant structural characteristics in designing better quality materials from wheat straw. (c) To acquire protocols and engineering procedures for the development and fabrication of WBW materials from wheat straw, starch byproducts, and recycled gypsum.  The success of the protocols was to be judged by the consistency of WBW materials produced. (d) To enhance the mechanical strength, moisture resistance, thermal insulation, and acoustical characteristics of WBW material by evaluating how various variables affect the materials’ characteristics. (e) To evaluate the mechanical, structural, and chemical properties of various WBW model materials designed by conducting scanning electron microscopic (SEM), fast Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), differential thermal analyzer (DTA), flexural strength, flexural modulus, and compressive strength measurements. The success of our research will be judged by the consistent production of moisture resistant, high strength WBW material as evaluated by ASTM procedures and by the generation of technology transfer parameters.

SEM Picture of Wheat Straw

There are three important physical structural features of wheat straw which make it an excellent fiber and filler source for thermoset composite materials, i.e., intricate percolating pore structure of vascular bundles and central void, presence of microfibrils in the structure , and existence of polymer lignin near the surface of the straw.However, the lack of cross-linking between polymers, both thermoset and thermoplastic, and wheat straw fibers has been a major stumbling block for straw fiber utilization in various composite materials.Our recent work on wheat straw suggests that under appropriate conditions lignin’s chemicals diffuse to epidermis surface thus forming cross-links with thermoset polymers.We intend to exploit this fact to form value-added, ultra-light composite products from wheat straw for the automotive and transportation industries.The potential of forming these economically-viable materials from straw is born out by our preliminary experiments.

Wallboard composites formed from wheat and its by-products
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Composites formed from wheat straw