Title: Development of Rapid Electrolytic Method to Recycle Amine Cured Epoxy Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites with Methyl Radicals

Authors: Y. Justin Lim, Zehan Yu, Steven R. Nutt, Travis J. Williams

DOI: 10.33599/nasampe/s.24.0204

Abstract: Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites are uniquely essential materials in the aerospace, automobile, energy, sporting, and an increasing number of other industries. Consequently, we are amassing an accumulation of CFRP waste latent in value. Electrochemical techniques to recycle carbon fiber reinforced polymers have recently emerged as viable methods to remove the composite matrix from these materials and recover fibers. In many of these techniques, the composite is immersed in a solvent and acts as an electrochemical anode while a voltage is applied to the electrolytic cell. Still, few methods leverage the conductivity of the composite to mediate its own disassembly. We have introduced an electrolytic method that leverages this conductivity to electrolyze acetic acid to form methyl radicals that cleave the C-N bonds of the epoxy matrix and cleanly separate ordered fibers from the matrix. This talk will discuss the motivation and development for this new electrochemical method and explain the chemical mechanism through which it works.

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Conference: SAMPE 2024

Publication Date: 2024/05/20

SKU: TP24-0000000204

Pages: 10

Price: $20.00