The Essential Handbook of Polymer Terms and Attributes

186 Prepolymer

DOI: 10.1201/9781003161318-186

Prepolymer refers to a stable, usually partially polymerized, chemical intermediate that can be fully polymerized at a later time. As such, mixtures of reactive polymers with unreacted monomers may also be referred to as prepolymers. The term “prepolymer” and “polymer precursor” may be interchanged.

Some common prepolymers include:

• Phenol formaldehyde resins (PFs)  PFs or phenolic resins are synthetic polymers obtained by the reaction of phenol or substituted phenol with formaldehyde. Used as the basis for Bakelite, PFs were the first commercial synthetic resins.
• Aminoplastic resins  A typical example is melamine urea formaldehyde (MUF) resin, which is a poly-condensation product of the reaction ...