TY - CONF A1 - Rodricks, Carol T1 - Advancing Sustainable Composites: Challenges and innovations N2 - With the increased use of carbon fibre polymer matrix composites comes the important question of their management at the end of their life cycle. Given the high costs associated with carbon fibre production, recycling carbon fibres from composite waste is a desirable source of reinforcing fibres for new applications. However, current recycling methods result in recycled carbon fibres that are short with little to no orientation which can only be used in applications requiring intermediate strength at a fraction of the potential of the continuous, aligned virgin fibres. Thus, a method to recycle fibres with their original length and orientation intact is vital to truly realising a circular economy for carbon fibre polymer composites. Our research introduces a novel hierarchical composite aimed at preserving the length and orientation of carbon fibres on recycling. Virgin carbon fibres are encapsulated in an insoluble epoxy matrix to form tapes that serve as the primary units of the hierarchical structure. The primary epoxy matrix protects the fibres from chemical and environmental elements while maintaining their permanent orientation. The primary tape units are subsequently embedded in a secondary recyclable matrix polymer to make larger composite structures. Elium, a thermoplastic that dissolves in acetone and has mechanical properties comparable to epoxy, was chosen as the secondary matrix of choice in this study. This approach aims to achieve a composite that is mechanical equivalent to thermoset composites while facilitating easy recycling with minimal impact on the fibres in the primary unit. T2 - Materials Week 2025 CY - Frankfurt am Main, Germany DA - 02.04.25 KW - Recycling KW - Carbon fibres KW - Mechanical testing KW - Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs), micromechanics KW - Elium PY - 2025 AN - OPUS4-63004 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -