CHEMICAL RECYCLING OF FIBERGLASS REINFORCED THERMOSETTING PLASTICS USING SUPERCRITICAL ETHANOL

QFXUVR

Abstract

Issues of thermosetting polymer materials recycling have become important in the modern society. These materials are very stable, which leads to the formation of sustainable man-made waste. In this paper, the solvolysis of polymer composite materials in ethanol is considered. As the polymer composite used glass-reinforced plastics based on epoxy and epoxy vinyl ester binders. It has been established that the epoxy vinyl ester matrix can not be completely destroyed even at 280 °C. Solvolysis in supercritical ethanol of epoxy plastic at 280°C contributed to the destruction of the polymer matrix and the release of glass fibers. At lower temperatures, the matrix swells and only partial destruction were observed. According to SEM data, it was found that there is a residual polymer coating on the surface of the regenerated fibers, the thickness of which depends on the solvolysis mode. The diameter of the fiber extracted from epoxy vinyl ester plastic is 1-1.5 um larger than the original one. At the same time, fibers from epoxy plastic at a processing temperature of 280 °C  are only 100-300 nm larger in diameter than primary fibers. The surface of the fibers is smooth without traces of corrosion. The study of the solvolysis liquid obtained as a result of the alcoholysis of epoxy fiberglass by the GCMS method showed that most of it is represented by phenol compounds and oligomers based on them. In this case, the obtained products can be reused in organic synthesis.