ABSTRACT

Recycling of epoxy resin and its composites is extremely difficult due to its thermoset nature. In this study, we proposed the environmentally-friendly recycling system of epoxy resin with dynamic covalent bonding in the assistance of cysteine-containing tripeptide, so-called glutathione. The glutathione attached on the epoxy resin and resulted in the cleavage of dynamic disulfide bonds of epoxy resin through thiol-disulfide exchange reaction between the thiol group of glutathione and disulfide bonding of epoxy resin, followed by the scission of epoxy networks. Therefore, the degraded epoxy residue was dissolved into chloroform. Finally, this resulting product could be reused as reagent for preparation the new epoxy materials with approximately 90% of initial mechanical strength via regeneration of disulfide bonding through heating. This work demonstrated the different aspect to understand the decomposition and recycling of thermosetting networks and the wide application under more environmentally friendly condition.

摘要

由于其热固性，环氧树脂及其复合材料的回收极其困难。在这项研究中，我们在含半胱氨酸的三肽（即谷胱甘肽）的帮助下，提出了具有动态共价键的环氧树脂的环保回收系统。谷胱甘肽附着在环氧树脂上，通过谷胱甘肽的硫醇基团与环氧树脂的二硫键之间的硫醇-二硫键交换反应，导致环氧树脂的动态二硫键断裂，随后环氧树脂网络断裂。因此，降解的环氧残留物溶解在氯仿中。最后，通过加热再生二硫键，所得产物可作为试剂重新用于制备具有约 90% 初始机械强度的新型环氧树脂材料。