Formaldehyde replacement with carbohydrate

In this study, up to about 50% of the phenol-formaldehyde was replaced with carbohydrates and the modified resins used to bond wood veneer panels. The carbohydrate modified resins were formulated and cured under neutral conditions. The resins bond wood with acceptable dry- and wet-shear strengths, and wood failures. Reducing as well as nonreducing carbohydrates can be used as modifiers. The carbohydrate modifiers are being incorporated into the resin via ether linkages between the hydroxyls of the carbohydrate and methylol groups in the phenol-formaldehyde resin. The resins formulated under neutral conditions are very light in color. 

Phenol-formaldehyde type polymers had been the only exterior-durable adhesives for wood bonding, until the recent limited use of isocyanates. Both systems are petrochemical-based. Several researchers substituted carbohydrates for part of phenolic adhesives (1-4) > producing solid, fusible novolak resins. Recently, reaction of carbohydrate acid-degradation products with phenol and formaldehyde has produced liquid resols (5). Gibbons and Wondolowski (6,7) replaced a considerable amount of phenol with carbohydrate and urea to pro-... 

Why then are these lignin sulfonates not used as a partial replacement for phenol in phenol-formaldehyde-based wood adhesives The first reason is that the presence of the sulfonate groups confers a water sensitivity to the adhesive. This sensitivity is exacerbated by the presence of water-soluble carbohydrates. A second reason is the low reactivity of the lignin sulfonates with formaldehyde and the consequent low level of crosslink density achieved in the final adhesive. A third reason is the molecular size of some of the lignin sulfonates. Large molecular weight material cannot penetrate the cell walls of the wood to form an adhesive continuum between contiguous wood particles. 

In an earlier paper (2), we determined that carbohydrates could replace a significant portion of the phenol-formaldehyde resin used for bonding plywood veneer. Carbohydrates from renewable resources such as wood can replace up to 50% of the phenol and formaldehyde in resins formulated under basic conditions without significant loss of bond quality. Two-ply, Douglas-fir-veneer panels bonded with these carbohydrate-modified resins have shear strengths approximately equivalent to those for panels bonded with unmodified phenol-formaldehyde resin. 

Carbohydrate-phenolic-based resins have shown promise for partial replacement of phenol and formaldehyde in exterior plywood adhesives (7,2). Such resins are produced in a two-stage reaction sequence. First, the carbohydrate is reacted with phenol, and sometimes urea, under acid catalysis at elevated temperatures (up to 150 °C), to produce an acid-stage resin. The acid-stage resin is then made basic, formaldehyde added, and the reaction continued at lower temperatures to produce a resol-type resin. Adhesives formulated from these resins have curing speeds consistent with present-day plywood production needs in the western United States, veneers are typically dried to 0 to 7% moisture content and the adhesive cured by hot pressing the panels at approximately 140 to 150 °C and 1.2 MPa. 

Several chapters also demonstrate the use of smaller molecular-weight carbohydrates (i.e., monomers) in adhesives. Tony Conner and his colleagues (Chapter 25) explore the partial replacement of phenol-formaldehyde adhesives used to bond wood with various wood-derived carbohydrates. A1 Christiansen (Chapter 26) and Joe Karchesy and his coworkers (Chapter 27) investigate the very complicated chemistry and the practical application of adhesives based on the reaction of a carbohydrate with urea and phenol. Tito Viswanathan (Chapter 28) describes his attempts to utilize a very large carbohydrate waste stream, whey permeates from the processing of cheese, for the production of wood adhesives. 

The presence of numerous hydroxyl groups able to react with formaldehyde makes starch-derived products suitable chemicals for formaldehyde-based resins. Research on this subject started many years ago and showed that in a number of applications it is possible to partially replace or extend urea formaldehyde, phenol formaldehyde and melamine formaldehyde resins without significantly affecting the finished product s performance. In many applications, adhesive systems based on formaldehyde resins incorporate a polysaccharide component. More than 4.5 Mio mto of formaldehyde-based resins have been produced in Western Europe alone. The use of carbohydrates allows lower consumption of oil-based resins and, consequently, reduced release of formaldehyde in the environment. 

In the second approach (120), condensed tannins were purified of co-occur-ring carbohydrates and used as resorcinol replacements in a honeymoon system (116) as described previously in use of wattle tannin adhesives. One surface was spread with a commercial phenol-resorcinol-formaldehyde laminating adhesive, to which additional formaldehyde was added. The other surface was spread with pine bark tannin extract in sodium hydroxide solutions. Bonds meeting the requirements of the American Institute of Timber Construction were also obtained using this approach. It was necessary to remove the carbohydrates, however. Addition of the separated carbohydrates at comparatively low levels (about 10%) resulted in bonds with low wood failure. 

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