Slightly Bizarre Protein Chemistry: Urea-Formaldehyde Resin from a Biochemical Perspective

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Abstract
A linear urea-formaldehyde polymer and a glycine polypeptide have a significant degree of chemical similarity. The low solubility of fibrous proteins, the planarity of the peptide bond, the existence of hydrogen-bonded structures such as a-helices and β-sheets when considered together, suggest new possibilities for interpreting the structure of the urea-formaldehyde polymer. These new possibilities could provide a chemical explanation for urea-formaldehyde solids based on colloidal substructure as has been proposed recently. X-ray diffraction patterns from urea-formaldehyde resins, reported here for the first time, as well as laser Raman spectra, lend support to the proposal that UF resins may contain protein-like colloidal regions of semicrystalline nature.