Addition of poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) on the performances
of urea-formaldehyde (UF) adhesives was evaluated in this work. Three types
of UF adhesives were prepared, one without PDDA addition, and two types with
PDDA addition of 1 and 3 wt.% per dry UF adhesive mass. These UF adhesive
systems were used for producing experimental particleboard panels. The
addition of PDDA decreased the thickness swelling of the panel samples,
while the internal bond of the particleboards increased significantly only
at the highest PDDA content (3 wt.%). Differential scanning calorimetry
(DSC) was applied to address the influence of PDDA on UF adhesive curing
kinetics. DSC scans were performed in non-isothermal regimes using different
heating rates (5, 10, and 20 ?C?min?1). The activation energy (Ea) of the
curing reaction showed slightly lower values for the UF adhesive systems
containing PDDA. However, the peak temperatures and enthalpy of reaction did
not change significantly. The Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose and Friedman
iso-conversional methods were applied to investigate the effects of PDDA
addition on the UF adhesive curing process.