Commercial α-cellulose was compression-molded to produce 1A dog-bone specimens under various operating conditions without any additive. The resulting agromaterials exhibited a smooth, plastic-like surface, and constituted a suitable target as replacement for plastic materials. Tensile and three-points bending tests were conducted according to ISO standards related to the evaluation of plastic materials. The specimens had strengths comparable to classical petroleum-based thermoplastics. They also exhibited high moduli, which is characteristic of brittle materials. A higher temperature and higher pressure rate produced specimens with higher mechanical properties while low moisture content produced weaker specimens. Generally, the strong specimen had higher specific gravity and lower moisture content. However, some parameters did not follow the general trend e.g., thinner specimen showed much higher Young’s Modulus, although their specific gravity and moisture content remained similar to control, revealing a marked skin-effect which was confirmed by SEM observations.

A hstrac t Materials based on cellulose cannot be obtained from thermoplastic processes. Our aim is to prepare all-cellulose materials by uniaxial high pres sure thermocompression of cellulose. The effect of moisture content (0 8 w/w%) and temperature (175 250 °C) was characterized through the mechan ical properties (bending and tensile), morphology (scanning electron rnicroscopy, X-ray tomography) and microstructure (viscometric degree of polymer ization, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, solid state NMR) of the specimens. The specimens were mechanically stronger in bending than in tension. They exhibited a more porous heart, a dense but very thin skin on the faces (orthogonal to the compression axis) and thick and extremely dense sides. During thermocompression severe friction between fibers caused a decrease in molecular weight while heating