Repairable Woven Carbon Fiber Composites with Full Recyclability Enabled by Malleable Polyimine Networks

Philip Taynton; Huagang Ni; Chengpu Zhu; Kai Yu; Samuel Loob; Yinghua Jin; H Jerry Qi; Wei Zhang

doi:10.1002/adma.201505245

Repairable Woven Carbon Fiber Composites with Full Recyclability Enabled by Malleable Polyimine Networks

Adv Mater. 2016 Apr 20;28(15):2904-9. doi: 10.1002/adma.201505245. Epub 2016 Feb 15.

Authors

Philip Taynton¹, Huagang Ni^{1

2}, Chengpu Zhu¹, Kai Yu³, Samuel Loob¹, Yinghua Jin¹, H Jerry Qi³, Wei Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, 80309-0215, USA.
² Department of Chemistry, Engineering Research Center for Eco-Dyeing and Finishing of Textiles, Ministry of Education, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310018, China.
³ The George Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.

PMID: 26875745
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201505245

Abstract

Carbon-fiber reinforced composites are prepared using catalyst-free malleable polyimine networks as binders. An energy neutral closed-loop recycling process has been developed, enabling recovery of 100% of the imine components and carbon fibers in their original form. Polyimine films made using >21% recycled content exhibit no loss of mechanical performance, therefore indicating all of the thermoset composite material can be recycled and reused for the same purpose.

Keywords: carbon fiber; composites; polyimines; recyclable; vitrimers.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.