2022 Volume 43 Issue 5 Pages 198-208
Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) is a lightweight and high-strength material, which make its usage expanding in many industries. We have been studying a recycling method of epoxy resin using nitric acid under mild condition, and in this research, this method was used as a basis to develop CFRP recycling method. The physical properties of recovered carbon fibers were evaluated to assess the applicability of this method. CFRP waste which is projected to be disposed in large quantity in the future was prepared as a sample. By immersing this CFRP specimen into 8 M of nitric acid at 80℃ for 24 hours, both resin-free carbon fiber and recyclable decomposed resin could be recovered. The recovered carbon fiber shows higher value of tensile strength and interfacial shear strength compared to virgin carbon fiber. Therefore, it was shown that this nitric acid decomposition method is an effective method for carbon fiber recovery.
