Comment by rectang
8 hours ago
There are two recycling mechanisms:
> After use, the material can simply be ground into powder and pressed into a new shape while heated, causing the bonds to rearrange themselves. This is known as thermomechanical recycling.
> it can also be chemically dissolved
I wonder whether either of these opens up any practical durability issues for this variety of epoxy.
This is covered in the article.
> We have carried out ten [thermomechanical] recycling cycles, and the epoxy has not lost any significant mechanical strength in the process
Chemical dissolving is only needed for carbon fiber composite. 90% of the resin was cited to be recoverable in this process.
I saw that passage, which addresses that durability doesn't degrade through recycling cycles. But what I was curious about was whether this epoxy is more susceptible to weakening when exposed to heat in working environments, perhaps at lower threshold temperatures than common epoxy. Similarly, I wondered whether there were any chemicals which are commonly encountered in working environments which could serve as dissolving agents and damage this epoxy.
I don’t know of any recycled polymer that doesn’t have at least somewhat compromised durability. Doesn’t mean it’s useless though