posted on 2022-06-13, 20:44authored byDavid Martinez-Diaz, Alejandro Cortés, Alberto Jiménez-Suárez, Silvia G. Prolongo
Nowadays, there is
an important concern in the scientific community
related to the end-of-life products derived from polymeric matrix
composites. In this regard, covalent adaptable networks and, more
specifically, the disulfide bond-based ones are a promising approach
to develop composite parts able to be dissolved in a specific solvent,
thus regaining the continuous fiber reinforcement. In this work, the
effect of hardener isomerism, using 2-aminophenyl disulfide (2-AFD)
and 4-aminophenyl disulfide (4-AFD), and amine/epoxy ratio (1.0–1.2)
was studied to optimize the chemical recycling capabilities at different
temperatures. Results confirmed the need for using hardener excesses
for dissolving these vitrimers. Networks based on 2-AFD were dissolved
in considerably lower times than the 4-AFD ones, which is interesting
since the latter one is quite more used for this purpose and currently
way more expensive. In this context, a composite laminate, reinforced
with six layers of carbon fiber fabric, was manufactured as the proof-of-concept.