Phenol-formaldehyde reaction activation energy

The chapter ends with a case study. Four different reduced kinetic models are derived from the detailed kinetic model of the phenol-formaldehyde reaction presented in the previous chapter, by lumping the components and the reactions. The best estimates of the relevant kinetic parameters (preexponential factors, activation energies, and heats of reaction) are computed by comparing those models with a wide set of simulated isothermal experimental data, obtained via the detailed model. Finally, the reduced models are validated and compared by using a different set of simulated nonisothermal data. 

In the phenol/formaldehyde reaction, the rates for the addition and condensation reactions are in the ratio of 1 42. The overall activation energy is 84-100 kJ/mol. The p site in this acid-catalyzed reaction is about 2.4 times more reactive than the o site of the phenol. In general, then, p-methylol phenols are produced, but these are not as attractive commercially as the o,o -methylol-rich novolaks. The curing of novolak should, of course, occur as quickly as possible, which assumes that the reactive p sites are available for reaction (see below). 

In the alkaline solution, phenol is essentially present as phenate ion, so that the first steps of the reaction may be depicted as electrophilic additions of formaldehyde to the aromatic ring. Those attacks are essentially favored in the -ortho (0) and -para (p) positions, as sketched in Fig. 2.8, because relatively stable low activation energy intermediates can be formed on the contrary, the attacks in the -meta positions are much slower and are not considered here. 

In order to estimate the kinetic parameters for the addition and condensation reactions, the procedure proposed in [11, 14] has been used, where the rate constant kc of each reaction at a fixed temperature of 80°C is computed by referring it to the rate constant k° at 80°C of a reference reaction, experimentally obtained. The ratio kc/k°, assumed to be temperature independent, can be computed by applying suitable correction coefficients, which take into account the different reactivity of the -ortho and -para positions of the phenol ring, the different reactivity due to the presence or absence of methylol groups and a frequency factor. In detail, the values in [11] for the resin RT84, obtained in the presence of an alkaline catalyst and with an initial molar ratio phenol/formaldehyde of 1 1.8, have been adopted. Once the rate constants at 80°C and the activation energies are known, it is possible to compute the preexponential factors ko of each reaction using the Arrhenius law (2.2). 

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