Hydrolytic stability of cured urea‐formaldehyde resins modified by additives

Urea‐formaldehyde (UF) resins are prone to hydrolysis that results in low‐moisture resistance and subsequent formaldehyde emission from UF resin‐bonded wood panels. This study was conducted to investigate hydrolytic stability of modified UF resins as a way of lowering the formaldehyde emission of cured UF resin. Neat UF resins with three different formaldehyde/urea (F/U) mole ratios (1.4, 1.2, and 1.0) were modified, after resin synthesis, by adding four additives such as sodium hydrosulfite, sodium bisulfite, acrylamide, and polymeric 4,4′‐diphenylmethane diisocyanate (pMDI). All additives were added to UF resins with three different F/U mole ratios before curing the resin. The hydrolytic stability of UF resins was determined by measuring the mass loss and liberated formaldehyde concentration of cured and modified UF resins after acid hydrolysis. Modified UF resins of lower F/U mole ratios of 1.0 and 1.2 showed better hydrolytic stability than the one of higher F/U mole ratio of 1.4, except the modified UF resins with pMDI. The hydrolytic stability of modified UF resins by sulfur compounds (sodium bisulfate and sodium hydrosulfite) decreased with an increase in their level. However, both acrylamide and pMDI were much more effective than two sulfur compounds in terms of hydrolytic stability of modified UF resins. These results indicated that modified UF resin of the F/U mole ratio of 1.2 by adding acrylamide was the most effective in improving the hydrolytic stability of UF resin. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009