Characterisation of carbon fibres recycled from scrap composites using fluidised bed process

Abstract

A carbon bre recycling process for scrap composites based on uidised bed technology has been developed. This paper describes the recycling process and the characterisation methods used to analyse the quality of recycled bre. They include: the measurement of bre length distribution by image analysis; tensile properties by single bre testing; and the examination of surface contamination and surface chemistry of bre by SEM and XPS. Recycled bres of up to 10 mm mean length were recovered and they retained ~75% of their tensile strength, while the Young's modulus remained unchanged and the surface condition was similar to the virgin bre.

Structure–property relationship of recycled carbon fibres revealed by pyrolysis recycling process

“…The Young's modulus of the recycled fibres was 368.7 and 331.2 GPa respectively, while the modulus of the virgin carbon fibre is 355.7 GPa. Within the experimental error, the Young's modulus of the fibres has no changes after recycling, which is similar to our previous findings for thermo-oxidative and supercritical propanol recycling processes [7]. The tensile strengths of the recycled fibres are 10 -15% smaller than that of the virgin fibre.…”

“…In this process, carbon fibre can be recovered in one step without the need of an oxidation step, but the use of high pressure supercritical fluids leads to high costs in plant and equipment associated with process pressure. In our previous studies, we characterised carbon fibres recycled using a thermo-oxidative [6,7] and a supercritical propanol process [5]. The Young's modulus of the recycled carbon fibres has no significant changes for the both recycling processes.…”

The usability of recycled carbon fibres in short fibre thermoplastics: interfacial properties

“…There is good agreement between all experimental data and the corresponding VCF.PP VCF.PP(deg) Figure 9 Peak force vs. embedded area for degraded and nondegraded samples. Weibull fits, with values close to others reported in the literature for carbon fibre at a gauge length of 20 mm [45,46]. The Weibull parameters obtained are summarised in Table 5.…”

Mechanical analysis and toughening mechanisms of a multiphase recycled CFRP

“…Firstly, the Carbon Fibres (CFs) are reclaimed from the virgin (v-) composite, using either a thermal [2][3][4] or chemical [5,6] process to degrade the matrix; this generally outputs recycled fibres with little (under 10%) mechanical degradation [7]. The second step is the reimpregnation of these rCFs with new resin to manufacture a recycled composite; several methods are documented [8][9][10], but one of the most widely used is the papermaking of intermediate non-woven mats, followed by their compression moulding with resin films [10][11][12][13].…”