Products Cited in Publications Worldwide INVESTIGATING THE VITRIMERIZATION OF A COMMERCIAL THERMOSET RESIN SYSTEM

INVESTIGATING THE VITRIMERIZATION OF A COMMERCIAL THERMOSET RESIN SYSTEM

Ilse, J; Hubert, P

Abstract

Dealing with fibre-reinforced composite products at their end-of-life has been a perennial problem due to the inability to reprocess the thermoset matrix after cure. Very recently, there has been an effort to look at utilizing vitrimer polymers, which combine the desirable properties of thermosets with the reprocessability of thermoplastics due to the incorporation of dynamic reversible covalent bonds. Despite their potential promise, the adoption of vitrimers by the composite industry has been limited with few commercial products available due to their relatively recent invention and complex synthesis procedures. In this work, a facile method to prepare vitrimer polymers from commercial thermoset products is investigated, which involves only minor modification of the commercial product’s stoichiometry and addition of catalyst to facilitate dynamic bond exchange. Thermomechanical properties of the resulting vitrimer produced were subsequently characterized and compared to those of the conventional commercial thermoset where reprocessability was investigated through stress relaxation tests. Results showed that the vitrimer polymers produced were able to be reprocessed through the dynamic bond exchange, while also maintaining comparable properties to that of the conventional commercial thermoset. Ultimately, this work demonstrates a simple, practical approach to fabricate vitrimer polymers which can consequently be used in the manufacture of fibre-reinforced composite products.

Keywords

vitrimers ; recycling ; circularity

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A817872108503-47-598%

Zinc acetylacetonate xhydrate

15.0/100g

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