Chemical And Mechanical Treatments Of Recycled Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer

The use of carbon fiber waste is a reasonable approach to benefit the performance of carbon fiber and considered as green effort for disposal management. In this study, recycled carbon fiber reinforced polymer ( CFRP) was chemically treated using nitric acid to remove the resin. The treated fibers then pulverized to obtain short carbon fibers of about 90 mu m. Individual carbon fibers were successfully removed from the matrix resin by the chemical treatment. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed a very limited damage of the chemically treated fibers. Pulverized fibers showed a rougher surface due to the mechanical abrasion. However, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that the chemically treated fiber still contained other elements at about 7 wt%, even after the chemical treatment. The actual identity of the elements needs to be characterized in details by using equipment such as energy dispersive X-Ray (EDX).