Formaldehyde (HCHO) is a toxic air contaminant released indoors from pressed-wood materials and numerous consumer products. Formaldehyde emission data are needed for modeling of indoor personal exposures, health risks, and risk reduction measures. This study determined HCHO emission rates from 55 diverse materials and consumer products under two realistic chamber test conditions, using both tim...

Phenolic resins, phenol-formaldehyde polymers previously thought to be nonbiodegradable, are produced at an annual rate of 2.2 million metric tons in the United States for many industrial and commercial applications. Three independent lines of evidence established their biodegradability with the white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium. Chromatic transformation of growth medium (yellow to p...

Brown discolouration caused by resin exudation from knots is a problem for range of light-coloured painted pines, and will negatively affect the appearance finish. To solve this problem, hot-and-cold bath impregnation process wood prior to painting was tested. Sawn timber, 18 × 120 mm in cross-section dimension, were heated an oven then immediately immersed cold liquid containing phenol-formald...

Particleboard and solid wood stakes were treated with either an isocyanate or phenol formaldehyde resin and exposed in soil beds comprising three different soil types and two moisture contents. The treatments resulted in a marked improvement in the dimensional stability of particleboard but had no effect on solid wood. Higher moisture uptakes in stakes exposed in sandy soils indicated that the ...

This work deals with the influence of specific pressure during the press process on the radial and tangential penetration of urea-formaldehyde (UF) adhesive into poplar, as well as on the shear strength of lap joints prepared at these different pressures. An epi-fluorescence microscope was used for measuring the adhesive penetration when investigating microtome slides (20-μm thick) cut from the...

Interactions between poly(ethy1ene oxide) and phenol-formaldehyde resin play important roles in the mechanism by which the two polvmers improve fibre retention in the papermaking process. These were investigated at the concentration level and shear conditions found in this vrocess. The results indicste that the comvlex formed varies with pH and ionic strength over a very narrow range of conditi...