Phenol formaldehyde resin
synthetic resin made by copolymerizing phenol and formaldehyde
Phenol formaldehyde resins (PF), also called phenolic resins or phenoplasts, are synthetic polymers obtained by the reaction of phenol or substituted phenol with formaldehyde. Used as the basis for Bakelite, PFs were the first commercial synthetic resins. They have been widely used for the production of molded products including billiard balls and laboratory countertops, and also of coatings and adhesives. They were at one time the primary material used for the production of circuit boards but have been largely replaced with epoxy resins and fiberglass cloth, as with fire-resistant FR-4 circuit board materials.
There are two main production methods. The acid-catalyzed reaction of phenol and formaldehyde, with the phenol in excess quantity, forms a prepolymer known as novolac which can be moulded and then cured with the addition of more formaldehyde and heat. The other method has instead the formaldehyde in excess and uses a base as catalyst, forming a prepolymer known as resole. There are many variations in both production and input materials that are used to produce a wide variety of resins for special purposes.
Formation and structure
Phenol-formaldehyde resins, as a group, are formed by a step-growth polymerization reaction that can be either acid- or base-catalysed. Since formaldehyde exists predominantly in solution as a dynamic equilibrium of methylene glycol oligomers, the concentration of the reactive form of formaldehyde depends on temperature and pH.
Phenol reacts with formaldehyde at the ortho and para sites (sites 2, 4 and 6) allowing up to 3 units of formaldehyde to attach to the ring.
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This entry incorporates text from “Phenol formaldehyde resin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.