Fast-setting, fibrous, portland cement-based building material

Abstract

A fast-setting, fibrous, Portland Cement-based building material is made by soaking wood chips in water to provide substantially saturated wood chips, combining the saturated wood chips with a slurry of Portland cement to provide a wood chip/cement slurry, mixing a slurry of monomagnesium phosphate (“MOP”) with the wood chip/cement slurry to provide a quick-setting MOP/wood chip/cement composition, and compressing the quick-setting MOP/wood chip/cement composition to make the fast-setting, fibrous, Portland Cement-based building material. The inventive composition combines the best properties of cement and wood, yet uses recycled materials to make an environmentally-friendly building material.

We claim:  
     
         1 . A method for making a cementitious material, said method comprising: 
 (a) combining wood chips with water to provide substantially saturated wood chips;    (b) combining said substantially saturated wood chips with an aqueous slurry of Portland cement to provide a wood chip/cement slurry;    (c) combining the wood chip/Portland cement slurry with an aqueous solution of monomagnesium phosphate and allowing the fiber/cement/MOP mixture to begin reacting; and    (d) compressing the fiber/cement/MOP mixture before it finishes “setting” to provide a fibrous, Portland cement-based building material.    
     
     
         2 . A fast-setting, fibrous, Portland cement-based building material comprising substantially saturated wood chips dispersed throughout a mixture comprising an aqueous slurry of Portland cement and an aqueous solution of monomagnesium phosphate.  
     
     
         3 . A fibrous, Portland cement-based building material comprising wood chips fixed in a set matrix of Portland cement and monomagnesium phosphate.