Birch (Betula maximowicziana Regel) wood meal was liquefied in the presence of phenol using hydrochloric acid (HCl) as a catalyst at a temperature of 150 degrees C for 2 h in an autoclave. It was found out that HCl acid could be used as an effective catalyst for the hydroxy phenylation of wood under the experimental conditions. In this study the effect of the concentration of the acid catalyst and the phenol-to-wood ratio on the liquefaction were investigated. The results showed that the phenol-to-wood ratio and the concentration should be increased to a certain degree in order to achieve a less residual rate and sufficient amount of combined phenol. The phenolated woods had apparent flow temperatures in the range of 134.4 to 199.8 degrees C, being higher than that of a commercial novolak resin. Furthermore, increases in the HCl concentration during liquefaction reaction led to increase in the apparent flow temperature of the resulting phenolated woods. However, the changes in the liquid ratio did not bring about evident changes. The relationship between shear stress (tau) and shear rate (gamma) showed that the phenolated wood resin melts were shear thinning fluids. The dependences of the apparent melt-viscosities (eta) of the phenolated woods and a commercial novolak resin on the shear rates (gamma) have the similar tendencies, however, it was found the viscosities of the phenolated woods are about one order higher than that of commercial novolak resin.
