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Georgia-Pacific Chemicals (Atlanta, Ga., U.S.) is featuring its BreakThru technology, which has been shown in laboratory testing to reduce free formaldehyde in phenolic fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) resins to less than 0.1%.

According to the company, reducing residual formaldehyde content in phenol-formaldehyde resins (phenolic resins) is a frequent request in composites and other industries. Phenolic resins used for industrial applications, such as abrasives, filtration, honeycomb and foaming historically contain free formaldehyde levels ranging from 0.3% to greater than 1.5%, Georgia-Pacific Chemicals says. In laboratory analysis, the new technology reportedly reduced the free formaldehyde in phenolic resins to below 1,000 parts per million (ppm), or less than 0.1%.

Analysis also shows that free phenol levels are reduced with the new technology, the company says, and that resins with BreakThru technology have a faster curing profile. In addition, a honeycomb composite compressive strength study reportedly suggested improved performance in those applications. 

Analytical studies of this technology will be presented as a technical paper at CAMX by Carlos Maldonado, senior development chemist at Georgia-Pacific Chemicals. Maldonado will compare the new technology with a commercially available phenolic resin via thermal analysis, gas phase chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography.