Mechanically robust and powder-processable sulfur-rich terpolymers for sustainable and multifunctional CFRP applications

초록

Carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRPs) provide outstanding mechanical performance but face critical sustainability challenges due to the irreversible crosslinked nature of conventional thermoset matrices. Herein, we report a mechanically robust sulfur-rich terpolymer matrix synthesized via inverse vulcanization of industrial waste elemental sulfur with tricyclopentadiene (TCPD) and allyl glycidyl ether (AGE) crosslinkers, designed for sustainable and multifunctional CFRP systems with improved end-of-life management. By systematically tuning the relative contributions of TCPD- and AGE-derived network structures, the thermomechanical properties of the terpolymer were precisely controlled, yielding a composition that exhibits a balanced combination of mechanical robustness and thermal stability. Leveraging the dynamic nature of polysulfide linkages, the terpolymer enables solvent-free powder processing into high-performance CFRPs via simple hot pressing, effectively overcoming the viscosity control and scalability limitations of conventional prepolymer casting methods. The resulting CFRPs show uniform fiber impregnation and excellent mechanical properties, while enabling efficient carbon fiber recovery through thiol-polysulfide exchange-mediated chemical degradation. The recovered carbon fibers can be directly reused to refabricate CFRPs using stored powders without loss of mechanical performance. In addition, the composites demonstrate multifunctional capabilities, including weldability, repairability, shape reconfiguration, and thermally programmable shape memory behavior, which are demonstrated through a threedimensional dump trailer-mimetic structure. Overall, this work presents a sustainability-oriented strategy for recyclable and multifunctional CFRP systems based on sulfur-rich polymer matrices.

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