Preparation of montmorillonite modified phenolic resin for shell process

The development of montmorillonite modified phenolic resin under microwave irradiation heating was investigated. The effect of montmorillonite content and stirring time on the structure and morphology of synthetic resin was analyzed. The optimum processing procedure was found to be 45 min stirring time with 5.4% montmorillonite addition. Further, the platelet spacing increases with stirring time till montmorillonite exfoliated to nanoscales platelet. When montmorillonite is exfoliated, layered structure at nanoscale can be uniformly distributed in the resin. The overall performance of montmorillonite modified phenolic resin is improved remarkably, such as flow ability, tensile strength and toughness property of resin coated sand. However, the gelation speed decreased slightly by adding montmorillonite.