Preparation of a strong, mildew resistant, flame-retardant, and smoke suppressing bamboo scrimber through a sustainable method

With the rapid development of the economy and society, problems such as high resource consumption and serious environmental pollution in traditional reinforced concrete buildings are becoming increasingly prominent. Bamboo scrimber is an effective substitute for green building materials, but there are some problems such as susceptibility to mildew and poor flame retardancy, which limit its application in the building industry. In this study, the alkaline pretreatment process was used to remove some nutrients from bamboo to improve mildew resistance, and phytic acid and magnesium hydroxide were loaded on the surface of the bamboo bundle to enhance the flame retardancy. The results showed that phytic acid and magnesium hydroxide could be effectively loaded on the surface of bamboo bundles, and the mechanical strength, mildew resistance, and flame retardancy of modified bamboo scrimber (M10-PB) have been effectively improved. Compared with unmodified bamboo scrimber, the flexural strength and flexural modulus of M10-PB increased by 33.72% and 36.61% to 155.26 MPa and 14.59 GPa, respectively; the mold infection rate has decreased from 100% at 5 d to below 20% at 28 d; the limiting oxygen index of M10-PB bamboo scrimber increased by 13.2%, and the total smoke emission decreased by 54.4%. This method can effectively improve the mildew resistance, flame retardancy and smoke suppression of bamboo scrimber while maintaining high mechanical strength, which helps to promote the application of bamboo in the construction field.