Co-authors​ :

 Shammi SHAMMI SULTANA NISHA (AUSTRALIA), Tuyen TRAN , Racim RADJEF (AUSTRALIA), Henri HENRI PERRIN , Masoud BODAGHI (LUXEMBOURG), Mostafa NIKZAD (AUSTRALIA) 

Due to the growing market shares and waste volumes of fibre reinforced plastics and their associated recycling challenges, composite recycling has increasingly become the focus of industry and the scientific community in recent years. Further, composites made of thermosetting matrices pose a particular challenge as opposed to their thermoplastic counterparts. A proposed alternative to these two major classes of polymers is a matrix material that exhibits the ease of processing of low viscosity epoxy but also capable of being recovered in a similar condition to thermoplastics under mild and facile conditions. Elium® 188XO is one commercially available polymer claiming such attributes. However, to date, there is no report of efficacy and evaluation of its thermal and mechanical properties after multiple recovery cycles of Elium matrix. This study evaluates the material recovery outcomes of reinforced non-crimp glass fibre (GF) based Elium composites manufactured by resin transfer moulding via chemical recycling, mainly the dissolution process with a preselected adapted solvent i.e., acetone. Acetone was selected due to its cost efficiency, and ability to perform solvolysis at room temperature. This study aims to establish the effectiveness of the recovered Elium after multiple cycle as the reusable matrix for manufacturing of recycled reinforced composites. Elium was recovered from GF based Elium composite after three cycles. After each cycle, approximately 94% of Elium is recovered. However, the first and second recovered resins showed reproducibility while the third recovered resin and dried recovered resin showed slight shifts based on Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis. The four distinct peaks of CH3 and CH2 bonds (C–H stretching) between 2800 and 3000 cm-1 was observed into a consolidated envelope curve. Thermal and mechanical properties of recovered Elium polymer were determined and compared to those of virgin counterparts. According to the thermogravimetric study, Elium resin after the third recovery cycle showed a lower degradation onset temperature compared to the Elium resin after first and second recovery cycles. In addition, the end-set temperature increased by up to 5% from 421ºC to 444ºC. Based on the DMA data of the first recovered Elium, a storage modulus of 2000 MPa was determined. Through assessing the feasibility of recovering Elium after three cycles, the study is continuing to close the loop on the recycling and reprocess ability of Elium resin.