Materials Today Communications 10 (2017) 14–24 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Today Communications j ourna l ho me pa g e: www.elsevier.com/locate/mtcomm Insulation material production from onion skin and peanut shell fibres, fly ash, pumice, perlite, barite, cement and gypsum Hanifi Binici a,∗ , Orhan Aksogan b a Department of Civil Engineering, Kahramanmaras ¸ Sutcu Imam University, Department of Civil Engineering, Kahramanmaras ¸ 46100, Turkey b Department of Civil Engineering, Toros University, Mersin 33140, Turkey a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 12 April 2016 Received in revised form 25 July 2016 Accepted 2 September 2016 Available online 7 October 2016 Keywords: Insulation Onion skin Peanut shell Barite Radioactivity a b s t r a c t This study examines the suitability of fly ash, pumice, perlite, barite, cement and gypsum along with onion skin and peanut shell fibers as an insulating material. Apparent specific gravities, water absorption rates, flexure and compressive strengths of the prepared samples were determined. Moreover, thermal conductivity, ultrasonic sound penetration coefficient and radioactive relative permeability values were, also, investigated. The latter three properties of the samples produced with barite, pumice, perlite, onion skins and peanut shells were observed to be low. Consequently, this composite can be used in various situations because of its improved thermal conductivity feature, especially, as coating material in offices which are exposed to radiation a lot. Moreover, it can, also, be used for the radiation insulation of the walls of the radiation units of hospitals. © 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction The need for energy conservation throughout the world enhances the relevance of the researches concerning the use of new resources and technologies capable of producing biofuels, such as the peanut processing residues [1]. Other examples, like agro- industrial residues, i.e. wood and some urban residues, with a dry matter composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin constitute sources of biomass [2–4]. Peanut shells should also be considered in this context. As a result of recent researches, the areas of usage of peanut shells, which have an important application both in Turkey and all around the world, are enhanced. As a result of some recent researches, peanut shells started to constitute a many areas of usage both in Turkey and all around the world, which can be listed as active carbon, chipboard, plywood, composite materials and plastic plaque productions. In addition, in the form of waste, peanut shell is used as fertilizer preservative [5]. There are not many researches conducted on the use of peanut shells in the production of construction materials [6].The results of the analysis in the present work are given in Table 1. It is observed ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: hbinici@ksu.edu.tr (H. Binici), aksogan@cu.edu.tr (O. Aksogan). that, the amount of lignin is higher in peanut shells compared to other botanic structures [7]. Fibers of agricultural raw materials constitute an important class of sustainable materials with usage areas in construction. Many wood product standards make mention of alternative sources of ligno-cellulosic fibers, which constitute the primary sources of use- ful ligno-cellulosic fibers in biomass. Fibers of agricultural materials and their particles are in many ways similar to wood fibers and particles. Specific characteristics depend on species and degree of processing. The US construction materials industry based on agri- cultural fibers has been in a nascent stage for many years, when only few companies were lucky enough to have long term success. How- ever, agricultural fibers are currently used extensively in textiles, and much interest has been given to agricultural-based composite materials for products such as automobile interiors. However, huge amounts of agricultural fibers are leftovers of food production and are generally burned or used in landfilling since no other alternative has been found to use them. In construction industry agricultural fibers have been competing with wood, while other materials can also be mixed with wood fibers to obtain better properties [8]. Most construction materials contain some natural radioactivity. Since terrestrial radiation in buildings does not only come from the soil, but also from the construction materials used, an additional rate which is absorbed is measured in most buildings [9,10]. The EU details Radiation Protection principles in issue 112 of radiation protection. To put restrictions on the limits the dose criterion based on the conditions in the EU countries must be used. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2016.09.004 2352-4928/© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.