Analysis of urea formaldehyde and urea-formaldehydeacrylamide resins using thermogravimetric method / Zaimatul Aqmar Abdullah and Nor Yuziah Mohd Yunus

Formaldehyde emission reduction in panel products is critical and it can be partially
controlled by using resin. As part of the emission reduction exercise, incorporation of
acrylamide to urea formaldehyde (UF) was done for UF at molar ratio1.4. The produced UF
and UF-acrylamide (UFA) were analyzed using Fourier Transform Infra-red (FTIR) for
functional groups identification. Resins were also tested using thermogravimetric analysis
(TGA) and the activation energy of both was determined using Kissinger method. The
thermal decomposition profile for both samples followed similar trend. Two stages of
decompositions were seen, where the first stage decomposed between 100 to 150°C, while
the second stage ranges between 200 to 250°C. The low molecular weight material loss and
degradation process was well defined. The activation energy was 130-140 kJ/mol for UFA
and 150-170 kJ/mol for UF showing the UF resin to be more stable than UFA. Resultant
panel product produced using UF and UFA, tested by Desiccator method, gave similar
formaldehyde emission