Recycling of Glass Fibre Reinforced Phenolic Prepreg Waste Part 1. Recovery and Reuse of Glass Fibres in PP and PA6

Abstract

The present paper describes a feasible process to reuse glass fibres separated from phenolic prepreg waste as reinforcing filler in polypropylene (PP) and polyamide 6 (PA6). Prior to compounding, the recovered glass fibres were cut into 50 mm long fibre bundles and surface treated with gamma-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APS) for increased composite interfacial strength. Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis (ESCA) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) showed that the silane coupling agent was attached to the surface of the glass fibres but the silane layer was somewhat uneven, probably due to the presence of small amounts of organic contaminants. In addition it was found necessary to clean the glass fibres from organic contaminants by thermal treatment in order to attach silane coupling agent to the surfaces. The tensile strengths obtained for PP and PA6 composites with 30 wt% filler level of surface treated recovered glass fibres were 49 MPa and 101 MPa, respectively. This should be compared to 30 MPa and 75 MPa for composites containing untreated glass fibres and 19 MPa and 52 MPa for pure PP and PA6. Addition of 5 wt% PP-g-MA compatibiliser to the PP composite increased the tensile strength by another 14%, i.e. to 56 MPa. The good interfacial compatibility achieved by APS surface treatment and compatibilisation was verified by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).