Phenol-formaldehyde processing data

Although the condensation of phenol with formaldehyde has been known for more than 100 years, it is only recently that the reaction could be studied in detail. Recent developments in analytical instrumentation like GC, GPC, HPLC, IR spectroscopy and NMR spectroscopy have made it possible for the intermediates involved in such reactions to be characterized and determined (1.-6). In addition, high speed computers can now be used to simulate the complicated multi-component, multi-path kinetic schemes involved in phenol-formaldehyde reactions (6-27) and optimization routines can be used in conjunction with computer-based models for phenol-formaldehyde reactions to estimate, from experimental data, reaction rates for the various processes involved. The combined use of precise analytical data and of computer-based techniques to analyze such data has been very fruitful. 

Occasionally, the U.S. EPA issues a process safety alert or study that is related to chemical reactivity hazards. The following incident summaries are from a Case Study on phenol-formaldehyde reaction hazards (EPA 1999a) and from an Alert urging the use of multiple data sources when developing emergency response strategies (EPA 1999b). 

The overall objective of this and a companion paper (22) is to define the extent to which board formaldehyde emission is controlled by resin hydrolysis or other processes. In the companion paper I have critically reviewed the literature and presented original Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) data in three related aspects of the formaldehyde emission phenomenon the chemistry of and formaldehyde liberation from formaldehyde-urea and formaldehyde-phenol states the chemistry of and formaldehyde liberation from formaldehyde-cellulose and resin-cellulose states and our knowledge of the board emission mechanism derived from actual board and wood systems. Whereas my oral presentation at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Symposium made use of information from all three of those parts, this written paper, in the interest of saving space, is limited to literature and FPL data dealing with actual wood-containing systems. The Conclusions section of this paper, however, makes use of the results from all three parts of the companion paper. Experimental details of the... 

Kern and Cherdron [2] propose the introduction into the polymer not only of additions of formaldehyde acceptors, but also of antioxidants, which, as has been shown on other polymers, satisfactorily solve the problem of stabilization against oxidation. However, the use of antioxidants was not substantiated in the indicated studies, if we consider that the decomposition of polyformaldehyde proceeds according to an ionic mechanism according to the data of these authors. However, it is known that stabilizing additives of the type of phenols, amines, etc., decelerate processes that proceed only through the formation of free radicals. 

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