Bacterially derived wood adhesive

Wood adhesives play an essential role in industry, however, many contain significant amounts of toxic components and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and most are produced from depleting petrochemical resources. We are currently investigating adhesives derived from microbial extracellular polysaccharides for use in the wood products market. Polysaccharides are generally non-toxic, biodegradable, and produced from renewable resources. This study focuses on a new extracellular polysaccharide-based adhesive with performance that may be useful in some wood product applications. The adhesive exhibits improved performance over a previously described bacterial polysaccharide and produces shear strengths on maple substrates of up to 20 MPa at 53% relative humidity and 22 degrees C. Full strength was achieved in two days with half strength in 2 h. Although shear strength was sensitive to relative humidity, moisture resistance was substantially increased by partial acetylation of the polysaccharide. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.