Modified thermal‐ and sound‐absorption properties of plaster sandwich panels with natural rubber‐latex compounds for building construction

Natural rubber-latex compounds were embedded with glass fibers as a sandwich layer to modify the thermal- and sound-absorption properties of plaster sandwich-panel composites by casting. The physical, thermal, mechanical, and sound-absorption properties of the composites were compared to those of the commercial gypsum ceiling according to the American Society for Testing and Materials and Thai Industrial Standards. The optimum sample was a plaster sandwich-panel composite with 20 wt% natural rubber-latex compounds, 10 wt% NaHCO3, and 10 wt% tissue paper (PN0-2010-10). It exhibited low-bulk density (0.7504 g/cm3), low-thermal conductivity (0.0775 ± 0.0005 W/m.K), good noise-reduction coefficient (NRC) (0.2142), and a high percentage of sound-absorption coefficient (56.02%) at a low frequency of 500 Hz. On the other hand, the reference sample (P0-0-0) exhibited high-bulk density (1.1363 g/cm3), high-thermal conductivity (0.3387 ± 0.0003 W/m.K), low NRC (0.1381), and a low percentage of sound-absorption coefficient (10.07%) at a low frequency of 500 Hz. Therefore, the obtained plaster sandwich-panel composites are promising as building materials for the protective and decorative coating of walls and ceilings.