Effects of Reaction pH and Hardener Type on Reactivity, Properties, and Performance of Urea-Formaldehyde (UF) Resin

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of reaction pH conditions and hardener types on the reactivity, chemical structure and adhesion performance of UF resins. Three different reaction pH conditions, such as traditional alkaline-acid (7.5 → 4.5), weak acid (4.5), and strong acid (1.0), were used to synthesize UF resins which were cured by adding three different hardeners (ammonium chloride, ammonium citrate, and zinc nitrate) to measure adhesion strength. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (¹³C-NMR) spectroscopies were employed to study chemical structure of the resin prepared under three different reaction pH conditions. Adhesion strength of the resins cured with three different hardeners was determined with lap shear specimens in tension. The gel time of UF resins decreased with an increasing in the amount of both ammonium chloride and ammonium citrate added in the resins. However, the gel time increased for zinc nitrate. Both FT-IR and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopies showed that the strong reaction pH condition produce uronic structures in UF resin, while both alkaline-acid and weak acid conditions produce quite similar chemical species in the resins. The maximum adhesion strength was occurred with the resin prepared under strong acid pH condition. However, this study indicated that the weak acid reaction condition provide a balance between increasing resin reactivity and improving adhesion strength of UF resin. The measurement of formaldehyde emission from the panels bonded with the UF resins prepared is planned for future work.