Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) play a major role in enabling highly efficient energy usage in automobiles and aerospace applications because of their lightweight and robust mechanical properties. However, the current manufacturing process of CFRPs is time-consuming, not energy-efficient, and made of irreversible thermoset moieties, which are not readily repairable, reprocessable or recyclable. A new class of covalently crosslinked polymers known as vtrimers, that are reprocessable and recyclable, shed light on the existing thermosets’ limitations. Recent advancements of vitrimers have enabled imparting thermosetting polymers like epoxies with reprocessability but typically require high temperatures and long processing times, which compromises recyclability and energy efficiency. Herein, we developed a new vitrimer by incorporating dynamic disulfide exchange bond into a tailored amount of soft polyurea and hard epoxy segments. The created dynamic polyurea/epoxy (DPE) vitrimer exhibits 6 times faster bond rearrangements as well as lower reprocessing temperatures (~40°C lower), while maintaining mechanical strength unlike conventional epoxy vitrimers. Additional tailoring of the vitrimer matrix to create facile self-healability can result in recovery from microcracks within the composite matrix at room temperature. Continued exploration of different compositions within vitrimers leads to promising achievements in the future for reprocessable and recyclable CFRPs.

Fiber-reinforced vitrimer composites with multi-cycle recyclability

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.