The objective of this work was the production of adhesives based on demethylated creosote for bonding of wood. Different formulations of demethylated wood bcreosote/formaldehyde were evaluated aiming at improving their bonding properties. The initial pH value and the synthesis temperature were varied in order to obtain the best values for producing the adhesives. Thus, seven pH values (12.00, 12.25, 12.50, 12.75, 13.00, 13.25, and 13.50) and two different temperatures (60 °C and 70 °C) were applied. It was observed by gel time evaluation that the best synthesis temperature was 70 °C. The kinetic parameters were obtained through DSC analysis (differential scanning calorimetry) to characterize the demethylated creosote adhesive formulations synthesized at 70 °C. The adhesives were used for hot bonding (160 °C) and under pressure (12 kgf/cm²) on Araucaria angustifolia sheets. After bonding, mechanical resistance tests were carried out under both dry and wet conditions. It was verified that shear strength and wood failure under dry and wet conditions for demethilated wood creosote-based adhesives synthesized at 70 °C were lower than for laboratory-synthesized phenol-formaldehyde adhesive, used as standard.
Wood creosote; demethylation; adhesives
