Phosphoric acid derived efficient reclaimation of carbon fibre for re-manufacturing high performance epoxy composites reinforced by highly-aligned mat with optimized layup

This study presented an economic and closed-loop recycling approach of carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) comprising phosphoric acid derived efficient reclaimation of recycled CF (rCF) and re-manufacture of high performance epoxy (EP) composites reinforced by highly-aligned rCF mat. The integral rCF with clean surface and intact graphitization structure showed the high retention ratios of 97.1 and 99.5% in tensile strength and modulus, respectively, as well as highly-aligned arrangement of rCF mat with preferential alignment degree (PAD) of 83.5% much contributed to increasing its maximum volume fraction up to similar to 40% in composites. Thus, through fully utilizing the property anisotropy and structural designability of aligned rCF, mechanical and EMI shielding performance of rCF/EP composites were significantly enhanced via optimizing mat layup configurations.

Automated summary

This study successfully enhanced the performance of epoxy composites by efficiently utilizing recycled carbon fiber and highly-aligned carbon fiber mat, especially in terms of mechanical properties and EMI shielding performance.