Fortified Mangrove Tannin-Based Plywood Adhesive S. SOWUNMI,1 R. O. EBEWELE,1,* A. H. CONNER,2 AND B. H. RIVER2 1Department of Chemical Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria; and 2Forest Products Laboratory, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53705 SYNOPSIS Mangrove bark tannin adhesives are based on a renewable resource. They are potential substitutes or supplements for phenol-formaldehyde (PF) wood-bonding adhesives which are derived from petroleum, a finite natural resource. However, mangrove tannin adhesives exhibit poor adhesive properties including poor wet strength, brittleness, and poor wood penetration. These problems were addressed by treating tannin extract with acetic anhydride and then sodium hydroxide followed by modification with 20% resole-type PF resin. Sig- nificant structural changes occurred after the chemical treatment. Heat of reaction of tannin with formaldehyde was increased while the activation energy was drastically reduced. Pre- mature cure was also reduced. The fortified formulations had good plywood adhesive prop- erties. 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. INTRODUCTION poor wood penetration, and poor wet strength. Rea- sons advanced for these shortcomings inter alia in- 1,2,6,7 There have been several attempts to replace part of clude the following. the petroleum-derived phenolic compounds in wood bonding adhesives with phenolic-type compounds 1. The tannin molecules are big and therefore obtained from renewable sources. Principal among cannot rotate freely about their backbone. these efforts is the development of adhesives from This results in the observed inherent brittle- tannin. 1,2 Tannin-based adhesives have in the past ness. been heavily fortified with urea, urea-formaldehyde 2. The high reactivity of tannin molecuies (UF), phenol-formaldehyde (PF), and resorcinol- causes premature cure. Consequently, the re- formaldehyde (RF) with encouraging results.1-5 sidual active centers become too far apart for However, very little work has been done on tropical formaldehyde molecules to bridge.3,5-7 The forest mangrove tannin. In Nigeria, where mangrove resulting incomplete crosslinking enhances forests abound on the south coast, Ohunyon and loss of structural integrity in adverse envi- Ebewele attempted to develop mangrove tannin- ronments. based plywood adhesive.6,7 Their efforts were con- centrated on using metal acetates to induce partic- The aim of this study therefore was to improve the ipation of the “B” ring of the tannin flavonoid adhesive properties of mangrove bark tannin adhesive. molecule in the tannin formaldehyde condensation Specifically, the objective was to reduce the size of the reaction. This B is normally inert except at pH > polyflavonoid molecules to enhance molecular flexi- 8, at which the reactivity of the “A” ring becomes bility and then modify the resulting structure with very high. High level (55%) fortification with meth- resole-type PF resin to reduce the tendency for pre- ylol phenol was still necessary to achieve good ad- mature cure and encourage a higher degree of cross- hesive properties. However, the adhesives developed linking. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy have a number of shortcomings including brittleness, (13C-NMR) was used to monitor the probable chemical changes while differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to determine the relative cure response and *To whom correspondence should be addressed. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 62, 577-.584 (1996) kinetic characteristics of the unmodified and modified 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCC 021-8995/96/030577-08 mangrove tannin adhesives. 577 578 SOWUNMI ET AL. Chemistry of Condensed Tannin reactivity of the A ring, are most probably re- sponsible for the poor adhesive properties. In ad- The tannin polyflavonoid molecule essentially dition, the presence of nontannin compounds such consists of five to 11 monoflavonoid units. In the as gums, which are highly branched polysaccha- monoflavonoid unit, two phenolic rings (A and B), rides, affects the properties of tannin-based ad- are joined by a heterocyclic ring (Fig. 1). Tannin, hesive, particularly its moisture resistance. being phenolic, reacts with formaldehyde in a manner similar to that for the reaction of form- aldehyde with phenol. However, unlike most syn- Hydrolysis of Tannin thetic phenolic compounds, on heating tannin de- grades rather than melts. Therefore, during the Caustic hydrolysis of resorcinolic tannin has been condensation reaction of tannin with formalde- reported to cleave the inter flavonoid bond and open hyde, especially at high temperatures, tannin the etherocyclic ring joining the A and B ring of the molecules become immobile due to evaporation of flavonoid unit.8 A proposed mechanism based on this water. The result is that condensation does not go study is shown in Figure 1. far enough to give the required adhesive properties. Acid hydrolysis has been shown to easily open It therefore appears that the size and the non- the etherocyclic ring of polyflavonoids with the for- melting nature of the tannin, and not just the mation of a carbonation, which is capable of reacting TANNIN-BASED PLYWOOD ADHESIVE 579 with another nucleophile present.5 This is repre- pared and later reacted with resorcinol to give a re- sented by Figure 2. sorcinol terminated phenol–resorcinol-formalde- Pizzi and Stephanou9 reported an improvement hyde resole, which was then used as a bridging agent. in the performance of a nonfortified mimosa tan- The use of fortifying agents like PF resoles is there- nin-based adhesive developed by subjecting tannin fore expected to help bridge the reactive sites on the extracts to anhydride and subsequent alkaline large tannin flavonoid molecules. treatment. The following were suggested as prob- able reasons for the improved adhesive perfor- mance. 9 EXPERIMENTAL 1. Cleaving of the tannin interflavonoid bond: Acid and Subsequent Alkaline Hydrolysis of This results in smaller, more mobile tannin Tannin flavonoid compounds. Therefore, the level Modification of mangrove tannin was essentially by of condensation is enhanced with formal- anhydride and sodium hydroxide treatment. Fifty dehyde. parts of mangrove tannin extract were heated with 2. Opening of the heterocyclic ring joining the 95 parts of distilled water, 2.5 parts of acetic an- A and B rings of the tannin flavonoid com- hydride, and 2.5 parts of (6 : 10) phenol : acetic acid pound leads to a more flexible compound and mixture to about 90” C. The reaction mixture was reduces the stiffness of the tannin molecules then held under reflux at 90°C for 1 h. After that, and consequently the brittleness of the ad- the pH of the reaction mixture was brought to 8 by hesive. adding about 22.5 parts of 33% NaOH solution. The 3. Hydrocolloid gums are hydrophilic, and very reaction was allowed to go on for 3 h while moni- viscous, even at moderate concentrations. toring the pH profile of the medium as the reaction The presence of these gums in tannin extract progressed. Acid hydrolysis time, acid concentration, tends to promote high solution viscosity and and alkaline concentration were varied to determine poor moisture resistance of the tannin-based their effect on the degree of modification of the adhesive. On the other hand, their corre- tannin. sponding sugars (of low molecular weight) do not have much effect on the viscosities of so- lutions. The destruction of these gums will PF Resole Preparation therefore improve moisture resistance of the Forty parts of phenol, 60 parts of 37% formalin so- resulting tannin-based adhesive. In addition, lution, and 22 parts of distilled water were charged because of its reduced viscosity, penetration into a reaction vessel. The temperature of the me- of adhesive into wood substrate will be en- dium was raised to 90°C, and three parts of 33% hanced. NaOH solution was gradually added with continuous stirring. This was followed by double addition of Fortification of Tannin-Based Adhesive three parts of 33% NaOH solution at 20-min inter- Some longer crosslinking agents have been tried on vals. The reaction was stopped 1 h after the first wattle (resorcinolic) tannin. These include some addition of NaOH solution by rapidly cooling the phenolic and amino-plastic resins.2,4,5 The relatively reaction product. Reaction time and interval of large molecules were used in part to replace form- NaOH addition were varied to obtain PF resoles of aldehyde, with evident improvement in resulting varying degree of condensation. wattle tannin–formaldehyde adhesive. Resorcinol, resorcinol-formaldehyde, and phe- NMR Analysis nol-resorcinol–formaldehyde resoles of different types have been used2-4 to improve the level of con- NMR (13 C-NMR) was used to study the acid and densation of wattle tannin-formaldehyde-based ad- subsequent alkaline hydrolyzed samples. D2O was hesives. Resorcinol capped resoles were mostly used used as the solvent for the NMR runs. as bridging agents. In one instance, resorcinol capped resorcinol–formaldehyde resole was first DSC prepared. This was then reacted with flavonoid and formaldehyde. In another instance, a methylol DSC was carried out in a Perkin-Elmer 7 Series capped phenol–formaldehyde resole was first pre- Thermal Analysis System. One part of tannin ex- . 580 SOWUNMI ET AL. tract or modified-treated tannin was dissolved in draulic hot press at a press temperature of 1’70° C four parts of water, and paraformaldehyde was added and pressure of 160 psi for 7 min. A glue spread of to the tannin solution. For the first set of runs, which about 5 g/316.14 cmz (0.158 kg/m2) was used, making were intended to determine the optimum amount of sure that glue spread was as even as possible. Bonded paraformaldehyde needed for the condensation re- panels were subjected to dry, VPS tests. An Instron action of tannin with paraformaldehyde, parafor- testing machine (model 1000) was used to determine maldehyde content of each batch was varied. For bond strength of the plywood specimens produced. each run, a sample weight of between 5 and 8 mg A shear rate of 2 mm/s was used.