Synthetic Process of Bio-Based Phenol Formaldehyde Adhesive Derived from Demethylated Wheat Straw Alkali Lignin and Its Curing Behavior

Lignin is a natural biopolymer with a complex three-dimensional network, commercially obtained from wasteliquid of paper pulp and bioethanol production, and could be a candidate for preparation of environment-friendlybio-based polyphenol material. In the present work, the demethylated wheat straw alkali lignin (D-Lig), preparedby demethylation of wheat straw alkali lignin (Lig) using an in-situ generated Lewis acid, was used to synthesizebio-based phenol formaldehyde resin adhesive (D-LPF) applied in plywood. Effects of synthetic process’s factors,including lignin substitution for phenol, NaOH concentration and molar ratio of formaldehyde to phenol, on thebonding strength and free formaldehyde content of D-LPF were investigated in detail, and the optimum syntheticprocess of D-LPF was obtained as following: Lignin substitution for phenol 60%, NaOH concentration 5.0% andmolar ratio of formaldehyde to phenol 2.0, and under the optimum reaction condition, the D-LPF presented lower free formaldehyde content (0.18%) and higher bonding strength (2.19 MPa), which was better than those ofcontaining-lignin phenol formaldehyde resin adhesive (LPF). Additionally, the curing behavior of the adhesivewas studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) combined with gel time. It can be obtained that D-LPFresin adhesive had the shortest gel time, and fastest curing rate, compared with those of PF and L-PF resin adhesives. The curing kinetics data was fitted well by Kissinger model using non-isothermal DSC method, and theaverage activation energy value was 85.3 kJ/mol, slightly higher than that of commercial PF resin, while lowerthan that of LPF (90.2 kJ/mol). Finally, based on the analytical results of high temperature fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), a possible curing mechanism of D-LPF was proposed.