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Student Name
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Magali Rego
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Research Title
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Recycling of thermoset resins via the development of a solvent trigger de-curing system
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Keywords
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Thermoset, Epoxy, Recycling, Stöber silica, Reversable crosslinking
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Sponsor
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Lloyds Register Foundation (LRF)
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Affiliated University
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The Open University, LHCS department
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Supervisors
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Dr Alan Taylor (TWI Ltd), Dr James Bruce and Dr Peter Taylor (The Open University)
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Start Date
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16 October 2020
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Project Outline
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There is growing research interest in the use of solvolysis/chemical dissolution for fibre reinforced polymer composite recycling due to its potential to recover both resin and fibre components. Chemical dissolution in selective solvents dissolves soluble thermoplastic and leaves insoluble, undamaged fibre for recovery and re-use.Dissolution and reconstitution of thermosets is impossible without covalent change at the molecular level. A combined reaction chemistry-solvent system will be required to decouple the covalent bonds within the thermoset molecules (“decuring”), and thence to selectively dissolve and separate the resulting molecular components (while observing energy and environmental constraints and catering for the presence of co-formulated additives in the original polymer).This PhD project will focus on a detailed chemical design approach to allow the regeneration of the precursor materials for thermoset composites, thereby addressing some of the major challenges identified by industrial Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) regarding many advanced thermoset-based materials. |
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Thesis
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Recycling of thermoset resins via the development of a solvent trigger de-curing system
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