Urea‐glutaraldehyde‐formaldehyde Resin with Low Formaldehyde Emission and High Flexibility: Structure and Toughening Mechanism

Urea-formaldehyde (UF) resin with excellent intrinsic flame retardancy, high strength, and low cost has been widely used as adhesives, coatings as well as molding compounds, and it is a challenge to prepare UF resin with combined properties of high toughness/strength and low formaldehyde emissions. In this work, glutaraldehyde was introduced into the synthesis system of UF resin to partially replace formaldehyde, and urea-glutaraldehyde-formaldehyde (UGF) copolycondensation resin was prepared. It was found that glutaraldehyde participated in additional/condensation reactions of UF resin, and the crosslinking reaction of UGF resin was hindered with higher curing activation energy than that of neat UF resin. Due to the controllable curing kinetics and introduction of long methylene chains, UGF resin presented relatively low crosslinking density, and under external force, it underwent distinct yielding before fracture and many yield folds appeared on the fractured surface, showing high toughness and strength. Compared with neat UF resin, the tensile strength, elongation at break, impact strength, and critical stress intensity factor (K-IC) of UGF resin increased by 26%, 42.30%, 14.6%, and 30%, respectively. Meanwhile, the free formaldehyde emission for UGF resin decreased by 47.5%, meeting the requirement of E0 grade. Such developed eco-friendly UGF resin exhibited promising application potentials.