Phenolic resins are a kind of widely used thermosets due to their advantages

such as low cost

easy availability of raw materials

easy processing and excellent comprehensive performance. The application of phenolic resins has stepped out of the scope of universal resins. The high performance and functionalization have presently become the main developing trend

especially environmental friendliness. This review summarizes the latest progresses on phenolic resins

including new synthetic and curing methods

such as ionic liquids

phase separation and Stober method

which has unique advantages compared with the conventional methods. This paper also reviews biomass-based phenolic resin modified by lignin

tannins and bio-oil

as well as the physical

chemical and biological methods for phenolic resin recycling.