The effect of urea-formaldehyde adhesive modification with propylamine on the properties of manufactured plywood

ABSTRACT The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of propylamine addition to urea-formaldehyde resin on the properties of resultant plywood. The research consisted in investigating the properties of both liquid and cured resins, as well as the produced plywood. Studies have shown that the incorporation of propylamine adversely affected reactivity of the adhesive mixtures by increasing their pH. The evaluation of adhesive chemical structure with FTIR spectroscopy showed some slight changes indicating the reaction of formaldehyde with introduced modifier. The addition of propylamine contributed to the considerable reduction of free formaldehyde contained in the cured adhesive. Furthermore, the propylamine was also found to work effectively as a formaldehyde scavenger by significantly reducing the hazardous emission from plywood. However, based on the results of bonding quality, delamination, bending strength and modulus of elasticity it was found that application of propylamine resulted in a noticeable deterioration of plywood properties. Therefore, the amount of introduced modifier should not exceed 1% of solid UF resin.