Characterization of urea-formaldehyde resins by ABES, DSC, GPC and HPLC.

Identifier:  TFG:2556

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TFG2556

Authors:  Gracia Omedes, Yasmine

Abstract:
Urea-formaldehyde resins are the most used resins in the wood industry, but since formaldehyde was classified as a carcinogen, its use has been decreasing, because the biggest problem of these resins is the emission formaldehyde after curing. Many studies have been carried out in order to reduce its emissions and this reduction entails a diminution of the reactivity and the properties of the resins, reason why its synthesis is being tried to be optimized. In this final degree project, we analyse a new range of urea-formaldehyde resins with very low formaldehyde emission through different analytical techniques (HPLC, DSC, GPC and ABES) in order to compare their reactivity. In the results a great tendency to obtain greater reactivity and better properties of resins with greater molar ratio of formaldehyde / urea can be observed.