Li Kai, Wang Zhonggang
Department of Polymer Science and Materials, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
Polymers (Basel). 2025 Jan 23;17(3):293. doi: 10.3390/polym17030293.
The development of an energy-saving method to recycle expensive carbon fibers (CFs) from end-of-life thermosetting resin-based CF-reinforced composites (CFRCs) is strongly desired because of the environmental and economic issues. The replacement of traditional thermosetting matrixes with controllably degradable epoxy resins provides a promising solution to this challenging task. In this work, a liquid acetal-containing semi-cycloaliphatic epoxy resin (H-ER) is designed and synthesized. After curing, H-ER shows simultaneously increased thermal stability, shearing strength, flexural strength, strain at break, and critical stress intensity factors by 126%, 26.5%, 17.0%, and 29.5%, respectively, in comparison with ERL-4221. Particularly, the cured H-ER is sufficiently resistant to organic solvents, bases, and weak acids but degrades rapidly in a modestly strong acidic aqueous solution, and the rate of degradation is controlled by modulating the acidity. GC-MS and FTIR spectra demonstrate that the degradation is indeed due to the cleavage of acetal linkages in the network, and the degradation-generated benzaldehyde may be reused as a raw material for the synthesis of the H-ER resin. More importantly, for the CFRCs using H-ER as a matrix, the CFs are readily recovered without detectable damage and are able to be recycled for CFRC fabrication.
由于环境和经济问题,人们迫切希望开发一种节能方法,从报废的热固性树脂基碳纤维增强复合材料(CFRC)中回收昂贵的碳纤维(CF)。用可控降解的环氧树脂替代传统的热固性基体为解决这一具有挑战性的任务提供了一个有前景的解决方案。在这项工作中,设计并合成了一种含液体缩醛的半脂环族环氧树脂(H-ER)。固化后,与ERL-4221相比,H-ER的热稳定性、剪切强度、弯曲强度、断裂应变和临界应力强度因子分别提高了126%、26.5%、17.0%和29.5%。特别地,固化后的H-ER对有机溶剂、碱和弱酸具有足够的抗性,但在中等强度的酸性水溶液中会迅速降解,并且降解速率可通过调节酸度来控制。气相色谱-质谱联用仪(GC-MS)和傅里叶变换红外光谱(FTIR)表明,降解确实是由于网络中缩醛键的断裂,降解产生的苯甲醛可作为合成H-ER树脂的原料重新利用。更重要的是,对于使用H-ER作为基体的CFRC,碳纤维很容易回收,没有可检测到的损伤,并且能够被回收用于CFRC制造。