A novel strategy for the design of cooperatively reinforced, shape-memory, recyclable ESO-based carbon fiber composites

Abstract

To improve the poor performance of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) thermosetting materials in preparing high-performance carbon fiber composites, we synthesized novel bio-based epoxy monomers using naringin (EN) as an epoxy monomer. EN's hydrogen bonding and benzopyrenone structure enhanced the crosslinking density, rigidity, bond shear strength, glass transition temperature (Tg), tensile and lap shear strength, and shape memory ability of ESO/MeHHPA/EN. The resulting carbon fiber composites had high tensile strength (349 MPa) and could be fully recovered using ethanolamine, with the recovered fibers maintaining almost 100% of the mechanical properties of the original sample. This study provides a new approach for fabricating multifunctional, high-performance, and recyclable ESO-based carbon fiber reinforced composites.