Development of Wight-saving Phenolic Resins with Cyclic Compound

Abstract

Resole is obtained from phenol and formaldehyde under basic conditions and is cured by heating. We try to prepare wight-saving cured resole resins by using cyclic phenolic compounds as curing agents. Novel resole resins (R-CR(10)s) were prepared by curing resole and calix[4]resorcinarene (CR(10)), which is a cyclic tetramer consisting of resorcinol backbone and undecanal. The resulting R-CR(10)s showed excellent heat resistance and light-weight properties compared to the resole resin without curing agents. Furthermore, P-CR(10), in which CR(10) was polymerized by methylene crosslinking, was prepared and used as the curing agent for the resole resins. P-CR(10) also worked for a curing agent for resole and added light-weight properties to the cured resins. It was found that the light-weight properties of cured resole resins could be achieved while maintaining the heat resistance by using cyclic phenolic compounds as curing agents.