THERMAL DEGRADATION AND XRD STUDIES OF VEGETABLE OIL BASED NOVOLAC SCAFFOLDS FOR THE FORMULATION OF RESINS

Abstract

Biomaterials, chemicals and energy from renewable resources have been the object of considerable interest in recent years. Vegetable oils are one of the cheapest and most abundant biological sources available in large quantities and their use as starting materials has numerous advantages such as low toxicity, inherent biodegradability and high purity. They are considered to be one of the most important classes of renewable resources for the production of bio-based thermosets. As a substitute to the use of conventional reinforcing synthetic resins, biobased resins were synthesized from cardanol, renewable and low cost industrial grade oil obtained by vacuum distillation of Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL), an abundant agricultural byproduct of cashew industry. On the other hand to further expand the field of application, cardanol-based novolac scaffolds, used in the formulation of thermosetting resins by blending with a conventional epoxy resin, especially designed to be compatible with conventional bisphenol- A epoxy resins. In the present study resins have been synthesized by condensing diazotized p-anisidine cardanol dye with urea, resorcinol and furfural as condensing agent.. The resins have been characterised by FT-IR, 1H-NMR and XRD studies. Thermal behavior of the resins has been studied by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Differential thermal analysis (DTA). The DTA, SEM and XRD data indicated the percentage of crystallinity associated with the thermal stability of the resins.