Since their inception, carbon fiber reinforced composites have been a mixed blessing. Carbon fiber composites offer robust, high-performance materials for an increasing number of high-end aviation and now automotive applications. However, this chemical robustness comes at the cost of yielding composite materials that are challenging to recycle while growing demand for these materials drives demand for petroleum-based chemicals. In this work, instead of attempting to mitigate the existing epoxy problem with a post-use degradation or recycling approach, we offer an alternative in the form of a biobased epoxy vitrimer made from rosin derived glycidyl ester epoxy resin and sebacic acid in order to provide a high-performance material that avoids the petroleum sourcing and non-recyclability of current composite resins. The high concentration of potentially dynamic ester bonds in the network account for the effective vitrimer behavior without the assistance of a catalyst. The prepared epoxy vitrimers displayed T_g of 90 °C and adequate tensile strength of 52 MPa which approach the properties of cured BPA epoxies thanks to the rigid rosin structure. Hydrothermal degradability was demonstrated, and the recovered carbon fiber showed little to no drop in performance.

自问世以来，碳纤维增强复合材料一直喜忧参半。碳纤维复合材料为越来越多的高端航空和现在的汽车应用提供坚固的高性能材料。然而，这种化学稳健性是以产生难以回收的复合材料为代价的，同时对这些材料的需求不断增长推动了对石油基化学品的需求。在这项工作中，我们没有尝试通过使用后降解或回收方法来缓解现有的环氧树脂问题，而是提供了一种替代方案，即由松香衍生的缩水甘油酯环氧树脂和癸二酸制成的生物基环氧树脂玻璃体，以提供一种高性能材料，避免了当前复合树脂的石油来源和不可回收性。网络中潜在动态酯键的高浓度解释了在没有催化剂帮助的情况下有效的 vitrimer 行为。制备的环氧玻璃体显示90 °C 的T _g和足够的 52 MPa 拉伸强度，由于刚性松香结构，接近固化 BPA 环氧树脂的特性。证明了水热降解性，回收的碳纤维的性能几乎没有下降。