Factors affecting the resinification of liquefied phenolated wood

Wood of Chinese fir and poplar were liquefied in phenol at 150°C and atmospheric pressure. The liquefied wood were reacted with formaldehyde to synthesize the liquefied wood-based resin. The factors affecting the resinification and the properties of new resin were investigated. The results show that the formaldehyde/liquefied wood molar ratio, reaction temperature, reaction time and sodium hydroxide/liquefied wood molar ratio have important influence on the resin characteristics. With the increase of formaldehyde/liquefied wood molar ratio, the yield of resin increases, and the free phenol content of resins decreases, showing that the resinification of liquefied wood is more complete at higher formaldehyde/liquefied wood molar ratios. The reaction temperature on the viscosity of the liquefied resin has considerable effect; the viscosity of resin increased with increasing reaction temperature, and the amount of liquefied poplar resin increased more quickly than that of liquefied Chinese fir resin. The resinification time also has obvious influence on the viscosity of resin; the viscosity of liquefied poplar resin is more sensitive to resinification time compared with that of liquefied Chinese fir. The amount of sodium hydroxide can improve the water miscibility of liquefied wood resin. The optimum sodium hydroxide/liquefied wood molar ratio for preparation of liquefied wood-based resins exceeds 0.4. [Supported by the Key Research Program Foundation, Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 02021), and the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30471351)]