Wood-based epoxy resins were synthesized from resorcinol-liquefied wood, which is the resin precursor, and the adhesive properties of the resins were evaluated. In case using steel plates as the adhesive substrates, the wood-based epoxy resin had lower tensile-shear adhesive strength than bisphenol-A type epoxy resin. However, in case using plywood as the substrates, the shear adhesive strength of wood-based epoxy resin indicated twice as high as that of bisphenol-A type epoxy resin. The observation of the fractured surfaces revealed that the main mode was the failure of the plywood substrates, which means the excellent adhesive properties of the wood-based epoxy to biomass substrates. As an application of the good affinity to biomass materials, the wood-based epoxy resin was served as the matrix resin for flax fiber reinforced composites. From the fractured surfaces of the composites, the good adhesive properties of the wood-based epoxy resins to plant fibers were confirmed, which would be a clue for the creation of high performance biomass composites.
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