Kinetic Study of Curing Phenol-Formaldehyde/Tannin-Formaldehyde Composite Resins

Abstract

This work presents a study on the uses of tannin-formadehyde derivative into phenolic resins. Eucalyptus tannins (T) were reacted with formaldehyde to form tannin-formaldehyde resin (TF). Then this derivative was used to prepare tannin-formaldehyde/phenol-formaldehyde resins (TFPF) at 20 and 40 %w/w. The kinetic values of thermal curing of Phenol-formaldehyde (PF), tannin-formaldehyde and tannin-formaldehyde/phenol-formaldehyde resins (TFPF) at 20 and 40 wt% from TF were studied by monitoring the weight changes which occurred in the samples weight during thermosetting process at four temperature (160°C, 180°C, 200°C and 220°C). The total evolved condensation products from curing reactions were about 32% - 36% per sample weight, and the rate of curing reaction constants was ranged between 0.163 %wt·min -1 at 160°C and 0.50 %wt·min -1 at 220°C. The path of TFPF curing and kinetic values indicated that these resins could be cured with the behavior and velocity comparable to that of PF. The activation energy of TFPF cross-linking was higher than that of PF. Increasing TF level to 20% and 40% into PF can reduce the amount of PF curing reactions density and weight loss percentage. The global kinetic properties showed that the TF participated in the thermoset network formation with acceptable activity and performance. The general results of this paper show that the TF is a suitable alternative material for partially replacement into PF resin.