{"term":{"id":"15249","title":"phenolic polymer","longtitle":"IUPAC Gold Book - phenolic polymer","doi":"10.1351\/goldbook.15249","code":"15249","status":"current","mentioned":"<em>mentioned<\/em>: novolak","synonym":"<em>synonym<\/em>: phenol-aldehyde polymer","definitions":[{"id":1,"text":"Polymer prepared by the polycondensation of phenols and aldehydes or by curing reactive oligomers prepared from phenols and aldehydes.","notes":{"1":"A phenolic polymer is usually a network polymer.","2":"Formaldehyde is commonly used as the aldehyde and (a) phenol itself, or (b) a cresol is used as the phenol. Phenol-formaldehyde polymer is a phenolic polymer resulting from the reaction of phenol with formaldehyde.","3":"A mixture of the reactive oligomers prepared by the condensation of a phenol and aldehyde, and also its admixture with a curing agent is, in a public (popular) use and technological practice, usually referred to as a phenolic resin or a phenol-aldehyde resin.","4":"Use of the term \"phenolic resin\" for cured reactive oligomers is discouraged; they should be called \"phenolic polymers\".","5":"A phenol-formaldehyde polymer prepared under alkaline conditions with an aldehydeto-phenol mole ratio between 1.5 and 3 is known as a resol. A resol spontaneously undergoes polycondensation at hydroxymethyl groups, to give a network, phenolformaldehyde polymer known as a resit. ","6":"A phenol-formaldehyde polymer prepared under acidic conditions with a formaldehyde-to-phenol molar ratio less then 1 is known as a novolak. A novolak can be cured with formaldehyde or a multifunctional reagent such as 1,3,5,7-tetraazaadamantane (hexamethylenetetramine) to give a network, phenol-formaldehyde polymer. "},"sources":["PAC, 2009, 81, 1131. 'Glossary of class names of polymers based on chemical structure and molecular architecture (IUPAC Recommendations 2009)' on page 1137 (https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1351\/PAC-REC-08-01-30)"]}],"altoutputs":{"html":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/15249\/html","xml":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/15249\/xml","plain":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/15249\/plain"},"citation":"Citation: 'phenolic polymer' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351\/goldbook.15249","license":"The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/) for individual terms.","collection":"If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .","disclaimer":"The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.","accessed":"2026-05-20T16:22:11+00:00"}}