Mechanism and Catalysis of Oxidative Degradation of Fiber-Reinforced Epoxy Composites.

ABSTRACT: Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) materials are widely used in aerospace and recreational equipment, but there is no efficient procedure for their end-of-life recycling. Ongoing work in the chemistry and engineering communities emphasizes recovering carbon fibers from such waste streams by dissolving or destroying the polymer binding. By contrast, our goal is to depolymerize amine-cured epoxy CFRP composites catalytically, thus enabling not only isolation of high-value carbon fibers, but simultaneously opening an approach to recovery of small molecule monomers that can be used to regenerate precursors to new composite resin. To do so will require understanding of the molecular mechanism(s) of such degradation sequences. Prior work has shown the utility of hydrogen peroxide as a reagen

SUBMITTER: Navarro CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6166884 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature