Micro-Morphological Features of Cured Urea-Formaldehyde Adhesives Detected by Transmission Electron Microscopy

This work examined micro-morphological features responsible for the crystallinity of cured urea-formaldehyde (UF) adhesives, using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to identify and characterize distinctive crystalline structures in resins obtained with different formaldehyde to urea (F/U) mole ratios and hardener levels. The TEM examination of cured UF resin adhesives impregnated into wood cell lumen revealed the presence of spherical particles with variable diameter and number per unit area. The diameter and number/area of the spherical particles increase for decreasing F/U mole ratio and decrease with an increase in the hardener levels, an effect which is closely related to their crystallinity. Therefore, the present findings suggest that the spherical particles are responsible for the crystallinity of cured UF resin adhesives. The results also indicate that crystalline structures represent an inherent feature of cured UF resin adhesives, particularly for low F/U mole ratios, even though these resins are usually classified as amorphous and cross-linked thermosetting polymers.