Durability of isocyanate resin adhesives for wood IV: degradation under constant steam heating

The durability of isocyanate resins consisting of emulsion-type polymeric diphenylmethane diisocyanate (EMDI) was investigated under constant steam heating. Two kinds of resin, water only-added resin and polyol/water-added resin, were used in this study. The degradation of the resins under steam heating was observed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), weight changes, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). FT-IR analysis showed that the degradation reaction of the resins scarcely proceeded for a few hours and then increased significantly. The weights of the resins decreased linearly during steam heating. The thermal stability of steam-treated resins was made clear by TGA. The bond strength reductions of the specimens bonded with the resins were also observed. The best fitting regression function for the behavior of bond strength reduction was determined statistically. The apparent activation energy of each resin was calculated from the regression function, for the half-life period. Considering the calculated values, the adhesion durability of using polyol-added resin was superior to that of using water only-added resin. It was clarified that the durability of the isocyanate resins under steam heating was markedly inferior to that under dry heating.Part of this paper was presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the Japan Wood Research Society, Kyoto, 2000