Estimation of Urea-Formaldehyde and Melamine Resins in Particleboard

This paper deals with a method to assess the quality of particleboard by determining the resin content. Because nitrogen content of the wood used in particleboard manufacture seldom exceeds 0.1 percent, the resin content can be determined through nitrogen analysis. Urea-formaldehyde and melamine, both used in the production of resin for particleboard are rich in nitrogen?around 30 percent. This method is a digestion method of hydrogen peroxide/sulphuric acid wet combustion procedure devised for wood, and since urea-formaldehyde resins are easily decomposed by acid digestion, the recovery of nitrogen from these resins is efficient. A sample of the particleboard is placed in a boiling tube and digestion mixture of sulphuric acid and hydrogen peroxide is introduced. The mixture is added to the sample and heated. After cooling, additional peroxide is added with further reheating. Free ammonia is eventually distilled. An alternate method for estimating the ammonium radical is the formaldehyde titration method, but for the range of quantities involved, it is generally less accurate than the distillation of ammonia followed by titration.

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