23 - Phenolic Resins

Abstract

The phenolic resins are considered to be the first polymeric products produced commercially from simple compounds of low molecular weight. Phenolic resins continue to be used for a wide variety of applications, such as molding powders, laminating resins, adhesives, binders, surface coatings, and impregnants. Recently, the market has continued to grow, but not at the same rate as for plastics materials in general. With most markets for phenolic resins being long-established but at the same time subject to increased competition from high-performance thermoplastics, the overall situation had not greatly changed by the end of the 1990s. Phenolic molding powders, dominating the plastics molding materials market, only consumed about 10% of the total phenolic resin production by the early 1990s. In the recent years, there have been comparatively few developments in phenolic resin technology apart from the so-called Friedel-Crafts polymers introduced in the 1960s and the polybenzoxazines announced in 1998, which are discussed in the chapter. Phenolic resins are also widely known as phenol-formaldehyde resins, PF resins, and phenoplasts. The trade name Bakelite has in the past been widely and erroneously used as a common noun and indeed is noted as such in many English dictionaries.