Mechanical Recycling of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer in a Circular Economy.

This review thoroughly investigates the mechanical recycling of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites (CFRPCs), a critical area for sustainable material management. With CFRPC widely used in high-performance areas like aerospace, transportation, and energy, developing effective recycling methods is essential for tackling environmental and economic issues. Mechanical recycling stands out for its low energy consumption and minimal environmental impact. This paper reviews current mechanical recycling techniques, highlighting their benefits in terms of energy efficiency and material recovery, but also points out their challenges, such as the degradation of mechanical properties due to fiber damage and difficulties in achieving strong interfacial adhesion in recycled composites. A novel part of this review is the use of finite element analysis (FEA) to predict the behavior of recycled CFRPCs, showing the potential of recycled fibers to preserve structural integrity and performance. This review also emphasizes the need for more research to develop standardized mechanical recycling protocols for CFRPCs that enhance material properties, optimize recycling processes, and assess environmental impacts thoroughly. By combining experimental and numerical studies, this review identifies knowledge gaps and suggests future research directions. It aims to advance the development of sustainable, efficient, and economically viable CFRPC recycling methods. The insights from this review could significantly benefit the circular economy by reducing waste and enabling the reuse of valuable carbon fibers in new composite materials.

A study of laser-induced blue emission with nanosecond decay of silicon nanoparticles synthesized by a chemical etching method.

Silicon nanoparticles (Si NPs), exhibiting a strong visible photoluminescence (PL), have found many applications in optoelectronics devices, biomedical tags and flash memories. Chemical etching is a well-known method for synthesizing orange-luminescent, hydride-capped silicon nanoparticles (H/Si NPs). However, a blueshift in emission wavelength occurs when reducing the particle size to exciton Bohr radius or less. In this paper, we attempted to synthesize and characterize H/Si NPs that emit lower wavelengths at room temperature. We proved that our method succeeded in synthesizing H/Si NPs with emission in the blue region. The wavelength-resolved and time-resolved studies of the PL were executed for H/Si NPs in methanol (MeOH), pyridine (py) and furan, using the 355 nm pulsed radiation from a Nd:YAG laser. In addition, excitation wavelength-dependent and PL studies were executed using the spectrofluorometer with a xenon (Xe) broad band light source. We noticed solvent-dependent PL spectra with sharp peaks near 420 nm and a short lifetime less than 100 ns. The morphology and particle size were investigated by high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). Particles as small as one nanometer were observed in MeOH and py suspensions while two-nanometer particles were observed in the furan suspension.