On the performance and recyclability of a green composite based on AESO resin

• Autor(a) principal: Seabra, Cláudio P.
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Sousa, Ana Catarina, Bragança, Ivo, Silva, Carlos, Robalo, M. Paula, Loja, Amélia, Martins, Paulo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/12033
• topic: Green composite; Recycling; Second-life composite; Natural fibres; Soybean oil; Mechanical properties; Water absorption

The aims and objectives of this paper are two-fold: first to investigate the production of a green composite manufactured with renewable materials (i.e., jute fabric as reinforcement, acrylate epoxidase soybean oil (AESO) as matrix and sisal particles (SP) as filler), by the wet layup method; second, to propose a recycling procedure to recover the individual materials and reuse them in the production of a second-life composite. In the first part, di_erent combinations of SP (0, 5 and 10 wt%) and hardener (2, 5 and 10 wt%) were mixed with AESO resin, poured into a mould, cured and submitted to mechanical and physicochemical characterizations to identify the best conditions for the composite production. Virgin green composites with 10 wt% SP, 5 wt% hardener and 5 layers of jute fabric, capable of assuring 91 HA of hardness and 10.6 MPa of tensile strength, were fabricated. The second part describes the recycling process of the composites with acetone, an organic solvente recommended by the safety, health and environmental criteria, to breakdown the resin matrix and recover the jute fabric reinforcement and resin particles, which were then reused to fabricate a second-life composite. Although the hardness values of the second-life composite were smaller (4%) and the tensile strength varied with composition, the absorption of water was considerably reduced (in the range of 22 to 51%). This last result mitigates one of the green composite’s limitations and fosters circular economy by assuring the applications of the second-life composite in the field of transportations, packing and furniture, among others.