Recyclable, reprocessable, self-adhered and repairable carbon fiber reinforced polymers using full biobased matrices from camphoric acid and epoxidized soybean oil

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced epoxy is the most commonly used carbon fiber composite, and it has superior performance. However, the growing demand for carbon fiber reinforced epoxy results in the huge consumption of petroleum products and intractable disposal problems, which have a heavy burden on the environment and affect the sustainable development of humans. To address this dilemma, in this work, recyclable carbon fiber composites were prepared using full biobased dynamic crosslinked matrices from natural camphoric acid (CPA) and epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) without additional chemical modification. As the dynamic CPA/ESO networks could be topologically rearranged via transesterification reactions (TERs), the composite laminates possessed usable performance at room temperature, and could be easily reprocessed, self-adhered, and repaired at elevated temperatures. In addition, the carbon fibers could be fully recycled via degrading the composites using ethylene glycol, where the recycled fibers maintained nearly 100% of the mechanical properties possessed by virgin samples. This work prepared recyclable carbon fiber composites using full biobased epoxy matrices for the first time, which offered a green and convenient strategy for designing recyclable eco-materials.