Evaluating the potential of chemically modified bamboo for sustainable and green construction

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the effectiveness of using acid-based chemical treatment to the durability, physiochemical, structural, and thermal properties that characterize bamboo as a sustainable building material. The study explicitly compares the effectiveness of acetic acid and zinc chloride as chemical modifiers with reference samples. The findings indicate that the chemical treatment of acetic acid yields optimized results by reducing water absorption to 9 % and swelling to 56 %, 21 %, and 12 % in terms of length, width, and thickness respectively. Furthermore, the flexure, tensile, and shear strengths of the acetic acid treated samples show significant improvement by 22 %-53 %, 9 %-35 %, and 36 %-42 % respectively for varying sections of bamboo, while the compressive strength compromises by 11 % except for the top section where it enhances by 41 %. Zinc chloride treated samples show improved mechanical strengths as well. To determine the mechanism behind these improvements, the effect of esterification on the carbonyl/hydroxyl absorbance ratio is analyzed using FTIR, which shows an increase in cellulose crystallinity as determined by XRD. Thermal degradation is also analyzed by TG/DSC tests, revealing the decrease in weight loss and exothermic thermal flow. However, the study finds limited effectiveness of zinc chloride as a chemical treatment on bamboo due to the dissolution of lignin by free zinc ions. These findings resonate globally, holding significant implications for eco-friendly construction. They highlight the potential of acid-based chemical treatment to improve bamboo as a sustainable building material, aligning with worldwide sustainability goals as SDGs 9, 13, and 11.