Reaction to fire, thermal, and mechanical properties of materials based on recycled paper granules bound with starch and clay mortar

The objective of this work is to produce an ecologically friendly material for use in Ivory Coast's construction sector in the future. These materials should have good thermal qualities and be flame resistant in addition to helping to achieve interior comfort. The fundamental components under consideration are freely accessible in Ivory Coast and include clay mortar as a fire retardant, potato starch as a binder, and recycled paper granules as a filler. The suggested ecologically friendly material's manufacturing process is fully described in detail. After conditioning, the team created multiple samples, taking into account that each test that the materials are put through requires various probe sizes for the thermal conductivity test, the reaction to fire test, and the flexural strength test. The best result regarding thermal conductivity of composites was obtained when 10 % clay is added in the mixture, namely between 0.057 … 0.068 W/(mK). During the ignitability tests the flame did not propagate to a height greater than 15 cm throughout the 60 s test time, so it can be concluded that the materials match minimally in the class E of reaction to fire. The flexural strength of tested materials was under 0.8 MPa.