Characterization of corn cob as a possible raw building material

Usually, the corn cob is considered an agriculture waste. This natural and organic waste material may be used in the industry, in general, and in the building industry, in particular. The work presented in this paper was developed in order to give a contribution to the knowledge of this material, by attempting to describe and assess its macrostructure and microstructure, elementary chemical composition, density, water absorption, fire resistance and thermal insulation capacity. These properties of the corn cob were compared with the corresponding ones of the most common thermal insulation products applied in the Portuguese building industry, which are extruded polystyrene (XPS), expanded polystyrene (EPS), cork and expanded clay. Several similarities were found when comparing the properties of these materials, in particular between the corn cob and the cork, which suggests that the corn cob may be used as a raw material to process thermal insulating products, light partition walls, ceiling coating, indoor doors and furniture, among other possible applications. The obtained results can also contribute to a more environmentally friendly building industry. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.