LAUSR

Owing to the multiple potential health risks caused by exposure to BPA and the strengthened regulation of BPA-containing thermal papers, much concern has been raised recently regarding a BPA-type color developer in thermal papers. However, few efforts have so far been focused on the development of safer alternative materials to BPA. In this study, we examined the use of polymeric materials as a safer replacement for BPA in thermal papers. For this objective, a series of phenolic polymers, phenol-formaldehyde novolac and resole (PF-N and PF-R) and BPA-formaldehyde novolac and resole (BPAF-N and BPAF-R), were prepared. Among these polymers, a BPAF-N-type polymer was determined to be the most appropriate candidate for a developer material in thermal papers. Through printing tests of the prepared thermal papers, it was found that BPAF-N_8 polymer has a high static sensitivity and dark contrast of thermal papers similar to those of BPA, whereas the BPAF-N_16 and BPAF-N_30 polymers have lower static sensitiviti...