Strong Fully Reprocessable Engineered Wood Composites
Abstract
ABSTRACT Developing fully reprocessable engineered wood composites (EWCs) with high mechanical strength under mild fabrication conditions remains a significant challenge. Here, a hyperbranched adhesive with complementary imine‐bond and hydrogen‐bond networks was designed and combined with wood particles to fabricate a wood composite (WP/HTP) by hot pressing at 120°C. The hyperbranched structure and multiple hydrogen bonds of the adhesive minimize steric hindrance while facilitating molecular‐chain mobility, thereby synergistically accelerating imine‐bond exchange. The WP/HTP exhibits outstanding reprocessability, retaining 100% of its mechanical properties after three cycles of reprocessing. Meanwhile, the reprocessed WP/HTP exhibits a modulus of rupture (MOR) of 89 MPa and a modulus of elasticity (MOE) of 5.2 GPa, far surpassing those of current commercial EWCs, which typically exhibit recovery rates of 3%–18%, MOR of 1–5 MPa, and MOE of 0.1–0.8 GPa. This study provides a practical strategy for fabricating strong, reprocessable EWCs for advanced manufacturing and represents a fundamental approach to addressing the wood‐waste problem.
Reference
Xilin Zhang; Zheng Liu; Zhezhe Zhou; Mark Lynch; Jianzhang Li; Paulomi Burey; Jingchao Li; Cheng Zhang; Qiang Gao; Pingan Song. (2026). Strong Fully Reprocessable Engineered Wood Composites. Advanced Materials. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.75232
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