Question

What happens when phenol is condensed with HCHO(formaldehyde) in presence of NaoH.

And please answer my previous organic chemistry question, it is opened for more than a week

Answer 1

Dear student,

Phenol formaldehyde resins (PF) or phenolic resins are synthetic polymers obtained by the reaction of phenol or substituted phenol with formaldihyde.Used as the basis for Bakelite, These were the first commercial synthetic resins (plastics)

Phenol-formaldehyde resins, as a group, are formed by a step growth polymerisation reaction that can be either acid or base-catalysed.

Or simply

Phenol and formaldehyde undergo condensation to give a polymer novolac (A) which on heating with formaldehyde gives bakelite (B) as a thermosetting polymer.

Sequence of the reaction can be written as

Structural difference between these two is that novolac is a linear polymer while bakelite is a cross linked polymer.

Mechanism Involved

Here the initial reaction between phenol and formaldehyde is an example of aromatic electrophillic substitution.

Hope you understood

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