Comparison of Formaldehyde Emission of Wood-based Panels with Different Adhesive-hardener Combinations by Gas Chromatography and Standard Methods

Formaldehyde emissions from wood-based panels bonded with pine and wattle tannin-based adhesives, urea-formaldehyde resin (UF), melamine-formaldehyde resin (MF), and co-polycondensed resin of urea-melamine-formaldehyde (UMF) were measured by the Japanese standard method using a desiccator (JIS A 1460) and the EN 120 (European Committee For Standardization, 1991) method using the perforator value. In formaldehyde emission, all particleboards made using the wattle tannin-based adhesive with three different hardeners, paraformaldehyde, hexamethylenetetramine, and tris(hydroxyl)nitromethan (TN), satisfied the requirements of grade $E_1$. But only those made using the pine tannin-based adhesive with the hexamine as hardener met the grade $E_1$ requirements. Hexamine was effective in reducing formaldehyde emission in tannin-based adhesives when used as the hardener. While the UF resin showed a desiccator value of $7.1mg/{\ell}$ and a perforator value of 12.1 mg/100 g, the MF resin exhibited a desiccator value of $0.6mg/{\ell}$ and a perforator value of 2.9 mg/100 g. According to the Japanese Industrial Standard and the European Standard, the formaldehyde emission level of the MDF panels made with UF resin in this study came under grade $E_2$. The formaldehyde emission level was dramatically reduced by the addition of MF resin. The desiccator and perforator methods produced proportionally equivalent results. Gas chromatography, a more sensitive and advanced method, was also used. The samples for gas chromatography were gathered during the experiment involving the perforator method. The formaldehyde contents measured by gas chromatography were directly proportional to the perforator values.