Polymerization and crosslinking of these adhesives is based on the formation of methylene

bridges. In the case of tannins, such linkages are produced by the reaction of flavonoid units
with an aldehyde [11, 30, 31].
In this work, tannin-based aerogels were synthesized by sol–gel polycondensation of
commercial wattle tannin (T) with formaldehyde (F). The major flavonoid compound in
wattle tannin is prorobinetinidin, see figure 1, based on the repetition of robinetinidol as the
flavonoid unit. This unit is repeated 2–11 times in wattle tannin, using mostly 4,6 and
sometimes 4,8 links, according to the usual atom numbering shown in figure 1 [11]. The most
reactive site towards formaldehyde is the C8 site of the A-ring. This reaction position is
related to the vicinal hydroxyl substituents
condensed tannin shows reduction in the formaldehyde emission level, due to its higher
reactivity with formaldehyde and the presence of catechol groups dhawale et al., 2021