Abstract
Phenolic resins are one of the oldest synthetic polymers and widely used in the industry due to their heat-resistance, chemical-resistance, dimensional stability and so on. However, the brittle limited to the application of phenolic resins. We attempt to add flexibility and sturdiness to phenolic resins by the formation of molecular composite with flexible linear polymers. In this work, molecular composites of phenolic resin were synthesized by the polycondensation of o-cresol, p-cresol and o-chlorophenol with paraformaldehyde under acidic condition in the presence of poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG). The characterization of the composites was carried out by 1H, 13C NMR and FT-IR measurements. Thermal properties were determined by DSC and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The composition of o-cresol resin/PEG composites was affected by the amount of PEG in feed. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of composites became lower with increasing the PEG content in the composite. It was found that the composites showed good compatibility in the wide range of the composition.
