Enhanced performance of urea–glyoxal polymer with oxidized cassava starch as wood adhesive

To eliminate the hazard of formaldehyde from wood-based products to human and environment, formaldehyde was replaced by glyoxal to produce wood adhesive. Urea–glyoxal (UG) resin was environmental friendly, while its bonding strength was very poor, especially its water resistance. The object of this work was to improve the mechanical properties of UG resin by oxidized cassava starch addition. Hence, the urea–glyoxal (UG) resin was synthesized and the oxidized cassava starch was added through mechanical mixing. The bonding strength, structure distributions, and the morphology features of the cured UG resin system were investigated by producing a three-layer plywood, FTIR, and SEM analysis. The results of dry and wet shear strength of plywood indicated that there was a positive effect of oxidized cassava starch on bonding strength of a three-layer plywood, and when the oxidized cassava starch content was increased to 45%, the dry strength could reach 1.21 MPa, and the wet strength was 0.72 MPa. The FTIR results showed that chemical reaction between UG resin and oxidized cassava starch was beneficial to the branched structure formation and higher cohesion strength of UG resin. Meanwhile, the tightness structure of enhanced UG resin system was observed by SEM analysis as well. These improved properties were contributed to water resistance improvement of UG resin.