The Reaction Mechanism of the Transetherification and Crosslinking of Melamine Resins

Melamine formaldehyde resins (MFR) are well known resins in the wood board and paper coating market. Etherified MFR's are applied as crosslinkers in the automotive coating industry. In Europe the growth of the market and the research activities are relatively small. On the other side in comparison to other polymers outstanding properties are possible to realize. So the development of new melamine ether resins (MER) was started. MER is a partly methylolated and fully etherified resin with a highly stable “thermoplastic” processing range. The MER's themselves are transparent granulates with enough stability for storage and transport. The crosslinking reaction can be started either by thermal or acidic catalytic activation, without losses of formaldehyde. Transetherifications with oligomeric diols can lead to more elastic and higher molecular melamine polyether resin (MPER) structures. The reaction mechanism and the crosslinking kinetics of the partly methylolated melamine ethers of methanol in comparison to the fully methylolated hexamethylol melamine ether will be discussed in this paper.