Influence of nanoclay on physiochemical, thermal and structural properties of urea formaldehyde resin

In this research, the effect of nanoclay on physiochemical, thermal and structural properties of urea formaldehyde resin (UF) was investigated. The prepared GLUF resin was mixed mechanically with the 0.5, 1 and 1.5% nanoclay for 5 min at room temperature. The physicochemical properties of the prepared resins were measured according to standard methods. Also, the thermal and structural changes in UF resin containing nanoclay were measured by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR) and X-ray Diffractometry (XRD). The physicochemical test results indicated that by addition of nanoclay the viscosity, solid content and density values were increased while the free formaldehyde and gelataion time of resin were decreased. FTIR analysis indicated that the addition of nanoclay decreased the methylene linkages in UF resin. Moreover, the new peak was appeared at 850 and 1140 cm-1 bands in nanoclay filled UF resin dealing that a chemical interaction between nanoclay and UF resin was accrued. According to DSC analysis nanoclay accelerates the curing temperature of resin while the onest and temperature peaks dramatically decreased. XRD analysis showed that nanoclay completely exfoliated in UF resin.