New method successfully recycles carbon fiber composite into reusable materials

Phys.org  October 31, 2024
Carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs, or composites) are increasingly replacing traditional manufacturing materials used in the automobile, aerospace, and energy sectors. With this shift, a team of researchers in the US (University of Southern California, University of Kansas) developed an end-of-life processes for CFRPs and demonstrated a strategy to upcycle pre- and postconsumer polystyrene-containing CFRPs, cross-linked with unsaturated polyesters or vinyl esters, to benzoic acid. The thermoset matrix was upgraded via biocatalysis utilizing an engineered strain of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans, which gave access to valuable secondary metabolites in high yields. Reactions were engineered to preserve the carbon fibers with much of their sizing so that the isolated carbon fiber plies were manufactured into new composite coupons that exhibited mechanical properties comparable to those of virgin manufacturing substrates. According to the researchers this represents the first system to reclaim a high value from both the fiber fabric and polymer matrix of a CFRP… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE