A novel approach on recycling short-chopped carbon fibers by electric field induced manipulation

Abstract

The recycling for reproduced carbon fibers (rCFs) attracts more interests in the industrial community of green manufacturing and the academic field of function-enhanced composites. To sufficiently exert the potentials and extend the application life cycle of rCFs, here we propose a technology of electric field induced manipulation to achieve the operational stages of recovery and reutilization for short-chopped carbon fibers (SCCFs) under the same configuration. Considering the electric property of SCCFs and expected functional objectives, the multi-material receiving anode comprised of polar dielectric layer and metal plate was originally designed. Performance characteristics of steady-state and step-rising electrical excitations were investigated for respective operational stages, and dynamic behaviors on the recycling state of SCCFs were observed by experiments. Accordingly, the working principle of this novel approach was preliminarily discussed. The results show that a large scale of SCCFs would experience the state manipulations of dispersion and collection based on electrostatic induction, and directed transport driven by dielectric polarization. This study suggests a pollution-free and low-cost method with high-efficiency to recycle rCFs, and further has broad application prospects in the preparation of resin-based function-enhanced composites and disposing conductive tiny objects.