joe_aldehyde - 18-10-2005 at 12:01
is the white precipitate in the bottle paraformaldehyde? what would be the best way to depolymerize it? i fuckin googled it but there were mostly
abstracts of papers giving no details of their "superior" methods.
S.C. Wack - 18-10-2005 at 13:46
I've never heard of it becoming anything else, which dissolves on reflux with water. Was this stabilized with CH3OH?
joe_aldehyde - 18-10-2005 at 21:15
it contains 10% methanol.
i thought that depolymerization of paraformaldehyde needed at least a tiny bit of OH- ions as catalyst, no?
DrP - 2-11-2005 at 09:16
http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan/formglut.htm
Don't know what it is myself, but this site reckons OH ions and heating at about 60 Degrees for the depolymerization. Any help?
FriendlyFinger - 2-11-2005 at 17:58
Joe, There is a thread at synthetikal on depolymerisation of paraformaldehyde.
UREA FORMALDEHYDE
DrP - 3-11-2005 at 02:47
I have a solution of Urea Formaldehyde polymer in water (there may be some surfactants and stabilizers as it is an industrial product). After about
4-5 months (beyond its use by date) it sets to a rubbery gel (leave it for longer and it becomes solid) - this is obviously the polymer
cross-linking, turning the stuff into something that I suppose is a bit like bakelite (phenol formaldehyde). Is there any way to reverse the
cross-linking here to 'de-set' the stuff if I catch it early enough??
My guess is - probably not as I don't think it can be done with bakelite, but what about the urea formaldehyde?
Cheers.