Production of phenolic resins from oils produced by recycling thermoset composites

An effective recycling technology for fiber-reinforced composites will increase their use in many applications while decreasing the environmental burden associated with their disposal. Recycling technologies that allow for the recovery of the fibers are of particular interest, especially in the case of valuable carbon fibers. Adherent Technologies, Inc. has developed a chemical recycling technology that allows for the recovery of the carbon fibers and also produces a phenolic oil mixture that can be used for the formulation of phenol formaldehyde (PF) resins. The goal of this study was to use well-defined phenolic model compounds to study the gelation process for complex mixtures of phenolics. The model compound work follows the simple statistical approaches developed by Flory and Stockmayer. These phenolic model compounds simulate the behavior of the complex products obtained from the recycling of thermoset composites. These results show that these complex phenolics will be incorporated into the PF polymer network and that high performance networks can be produced.