Spectroscopic analysis of urea-formaldehyde resin with and without acrylamide / Nurul Syafikah Sohaimi

The urea-formaldehyde of 1.2 mole ratio were prepared with and without acrylamide. The acrylamide was used to lower the emission of formaldehyde from urea formaldehyde resin. The effect of acrylamide on urea-formaldehyde were studied based on the chemical properties. The functional group of the pure and modified urea formaldehyde was determine by using the Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and the thermal decomposition of modified urea-formaldehyde were characterized by using Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA). The ATR-FTIR spectra of modified and pure resin show almost no difference. The addition of acrylamide cause the peak at 3329 cm- I become broad due to the increase of -NH2 amount. It was concluded that acrylamide was successfully introduced in the urea-formaldehyde resin. The acrylamide function in reducing formaldehyde emission during hot pressing at high temperature by forming N,Nbis(hydroxymethyl) acrylamide derivative that will be eliminate at high temperature. The TGA curve show four separate stage which is water, acrylamide, formaldehyde and urea due to the degradation of modified urea-formaldehyde resin and all the component were fully degrade at 900°C.