• Billington, Eloise
• Shaver, Michael P.
• Șucu, Theona

Abstract

Fibre reinforced polymer composites (FRPs) are valuable construction materials owing to their strength, durability and design flexibility, however conventional FRPs utilise petroleum-based polymer matrices with limited recyclability. Furthermore, fibre reinforcements are made from non-renewable feedstocks, through expensive and energy intensive processes, making recovery and reuse advantageous. Thus, FRPs that use biobased and degradable or reprocessable matrices would enable a more sustainable product, as both components could be recovered and reused. We previously developed a family of degradable and reprocessable cross-linked polyesters from bio-derived cyclic esters (ʟ-lactide, δ-valerolactone and ε-caprolactone) co-polymerised with a bis(1,3-dioxolan-4-one) cross-linker. We now incorporate these networks into FRPs and demonstrate degradability of the matrix into tartaric acid and oligomers, enabling recovery and reuse of the fibre reinforcement. Furthermore, the effect of varying co-monomer structure, catalyst, reinforcement type and lay-up method on mechanical properties of the resultant FRPs is explored. The FRPs produced have tensile strengths of up to 202 MPa and Young’s moduli up to 25 GPa, promising evidence that sustainable FRPs can rival the mechanical properties of conventional high performance FRPs.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• polymer
• strength
• composite
• tensile strength
• durability
• ester