Melting point of Phenol formaldehyde

Because phenol formaldehyde is a resin it is usually a mixture of chain lengths and cross linking. For this reason, you would not expect it to have a fixed melting point - rather it would usually have either a melting point range or a decomposition temperature (depending on the structure). As an example, the company Polyols and Polymers lists the melting point range of their POLYTONE PF 201 product as 700C-850C while their POLYTONE AP 132 product has a "softening point" of 970C-1100C but no melting point. Bakelite - which is one of the many types of phenol formaldehyde resin - is a thermosetting plastic which has no melting point; it has a decomposition point. As an example, the Bakelite manufactured by Jiacheng-Chem Enterprises Ltd. has a listed decomposition point range of 240~ 280°C. Again, because it is a mixture of polymer sizes and degree of cross linking, it doesn't have just one fixed temperature; it has a range over which the many different molecules will decompose. The temperatures under which phenol formaldehyde will melt, soften, or decompose are also affected by the amount of residual monomers still present in the polymer matrix.