Carbon fiber reinforced epoxy based vitrimer composite material closed-loop recycling

In order to solve the problem of low recycling efficiency and single recycling component of continuous carbon fiber reinforced resin matrix composite material (CFRP), methyl tetrahydrophthalic anhydride, tetrahydrophthalic anhydride, catalyst zinc acetylacetonate and epoxy resin were used to prepare a high-performance epoxy based vitrimer resin and its composite material. A closed-loop recycling was conducted involving the transesterification reaction of ethylene glycol (EG) at 180 ℃. Ethylene glycol participates in the transesterification reaction, and the composite material is recovered in a closed loop at 180 ℃. The apparent structure, thermal stability and mechanical properties of raw resin, carbon fiber and CFRP, recovered resin, carbon fiber and CFRP prepared from recovered resin and recovered carbon fiber were characterized and analyzed. The results show that the recoverying method can completely recover and reprocess the resin and carbon fiber of the composite material. After recycling, the retention rate of the tensile strength of the resin is 90.1%, the retention rate of the tensile strength of the carbon fiber monofilament is 98.9%, and the retention rate of the flexural strength and shear strength of CFRP are 86.2% and 86.7%, respectively. © 2022, Periodical Agency of Journal of Textile Research. All right reserved.