Development and Mechanical Evaluation of Banana Stem–Wood Dust Particleboard Using a Phenol-Formaldehyde Binder

The growing demand for sustainable materials has increased interest in converting agricultural and wood-processing residues into value-added composites.In this study, hybrid particleboards were fabricated from banana pseudostem (BPS) and wood dust (WD) using phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resin as binder.Three formulations, namely 100 : 0, 70 : 30, and 50 : 50 (BPS : WD), were prepared under fixed fabrication conditions, including a four-stage hot-pressing cycle at 181 °C.Mechanical testing and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used as the main evaluation methods, while Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was applied as a supportive technique for functional-group identification.Among the tested formulations, the 50 : 50 panel showed the most favourable overall mechanical trend, with the highest tensile, flexural, shear, and compressive values, supported by SEM observations of a denser and more cohesive microstructure.In contrast, the 100 : 0 panel showed weaker bonding and a more porous morphology.FTIR spectra confirmed the presence of characteristic lignocellulosic and resin-related functional groups, but were used only as supportive evidence rather than as a direct basis for ranking performance.Overall, the findings suggest that hybridisation of BPS and WD can improve panel quality under the selected fabrication conditions.However, since the present work represents a preliminary assessment with a limited number of replicates, the reported trends should be interpreted with caution and confirmed in future studies.