Themed collection Sustainable Composites

Professor Ian Hamerton, Dr Lois Jane Hobson & Dr Jonathan Wagner introduce the Royal Society of Chemistry cross-journal themed collection on sustainable composites.

The Composites Industry needs to participate in future circular chemical economies. Cooperation, standardisation and increased availability of transparent industry data for life cycle analysis, are seen as critical to a more sustainable future.

Smart biocomposites with integrated nano-carbons based sensors for structural health monitoring advances the real-world applications.

Jute fibres and their composites have attracted attention from researchers and have been used in many fields.

The article covers the outstanding features of fiber-reinforced vitrimer composites, including their reprocessing, recycling and self-healing properties.

A brown algae-based renewable epoxy monomer can outperform bisphenol-A based epoxy resin and composite systems by means of thermomechanical properties.

We report an electrochemical system for selective deconstruction and re-manufacture of epoxy-carbon fiber composite using a Kolbe-like mechanism for generating methyl radicals from CH₃COOH. These cleave C–N bonds via hydrogen atom abstraction.

The preparation of polyolefin composites using inorganic fillers is one of the most important strategies for cost reduction and property enhancement.

Fabrication of biodegradable oxygen-scavenging films and their activity at different temperatures for food packaging.

SWCNT-p-type TE films on GF with a power factor of 96 μW m⁻¹ K⁻². SWCNT-n-type TE films on GF with a power factor of 82 μW m⁻¹ K⁻². The GFRP–OTEG exhibited: V_OC = 1.01 V, I_SC = 850 μA, P_max = 215 μW.

The presence of renewable fillers, cellulose nanocrystals, enhances the Young's modulus of a biobased elastomer, polyamide 36,9. The modulus of the resulting fully biobased nanocomposites closely follows a classical theory of composite mechanics.

Fiber surface functionalization can play a dual role in the development of fiber reinforced polymer composites; improving the overall performance and enabling recovery of high-quality fibers.

We prepared Py-DSDA-COP/SWCNTs and this material showed a capacitance of 171 F g⁻¹ and energy density of 23.7 W h kg⁻¹ which is superior to those of Py-DSDA-COP/MWCNTs and Py-DSDA-COP/C60 nanocomposites.

Thermoplastic polymers obtained from Elium® combine desirable properties including recyclability/reusability. In this work new biobased redox initiating systems are proposed for Elium.

Realizing the complete and non-destructive recycling of carbon fiber reinforced composite materials is of great significance for the pursuit of sustainability and a circular economy.

Orthogonal benzoxazine crosslinking enables the solvent-free preparation of dynamic imine vitrimers with tailorable thermomechanical performance, efficient reprocessability, and chemical degradation.

Computational techniques predict the barrier performance of poly(lactide) composites, studying the relationship between free volume, polymer morphology and gas diffusion.

An efficient oxidation degradation is achieved together with full recovery of the degradation product via the selective cleavage of the C–C and C–O bonds in the hydroxyethyl ether unit, and the C–N bonds using the ammonium ceric nitrate system.

A new strategy was proposed to design a fire-safe vitrimer with catalyst-free adaptable ester-linked networks and its composite. Furthermore, the vitrimer matrix in the composite was degraded to achieve carbon fibers with nearly 100% recyclability.

In this work, a recyclable epoxy system with superior mechanical performance and high T_g (>200 °C) is developed for CFRPs, and a simple and feasible approach for highly efficient closed-loop recycling of CFRPs is demonstrated.

The interfacial properties are the key factors affecting the properties of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites.