Effect of Guar Gum on Tensile Strength and Moisture Resistance Properties of Sodium Silicate as Wood Adhesive

Sodium silicate has excellent binding qualities and has potential uses in a variety of areas due to its non-toxic, odor-free and fire proof properties. It is very cheap and volatile organic compound free from other available harmful organic adhesive materials. In spite of a lot of positive points, low water resistance has limited its usage as an adhesive in the wood industry on a wide scale. To enhance the bonding properties of sodium silicate for teak wood, three sets of sodium silicate adhesive (simple sodium silicate, modified sodium silicate with silica gel G and guar gum with modified sodium silicate) were prepared. The results showed that modified sodium silicate with 6% guar gum works best for tensile strength as well as best for water resistance. Results of FT-IR data and SEM showed that guar gum was successfully introduced in silicate structure, having good thermal stability in the range of 270C-8000C supported by TGA results.