The automotive sector is responsible for 23% of the United States' total carbon dioxide emissions. Lightweight advanced materials offer a great potential for reducing emissions: a 10% reduction in vehicle weight can result in a 6-8% fuel economy improvement. The highest lightweighting gains (50-70%) can be achieved with the use of carbon fiber composites. However, the high cost of the raw materials and the long cycle times in production of carbon fiber parts remain the principal barriers to adoption of this material by the automotive industry. While high-throughput, lower-cost methods for generating lightweight components are available (e.g. injection or compression molding of chopped fiber composites), the resulting strength of the composites is not sufficient to justify the excessive (400%) price premium. Phase I of the proposed project will employ the proprietary microwave plasma technology to generate a novel, high-performance hierarchical hybrid reinforcement filler based on the recycled discontinuous (chopped) carbon fiber. This project will leverage the technical expertise and material base developed over several synergistic projects targeting clean and efficient conversion of natural gas to hydrogen, chemicals, and high-structure carbon materials. Within the microwave reactor the recycled carbon fiber material will be decorated with high-surface carbon aggregates volumetrically synthesized from the entraining natural gas. The covalently-bonded nanostructures will be sparsely distributed over the surface of the fibers to provide improved fiber-polymer and fiber-fiber interfaces through chemical interactions and mechanical interlocking. The expected tensile strength improvement of 70-100% will enable the carbon fiber reinforced molded parts to meet the price-performance requirements of the cost-sensitive automotive industry. The university research institution partner will support material analysis and composite testing. A group of experienced composite industry advisors and consultants will provide guidance on the industry-relevant metrics and will support the technology-to-market activities. The proposed project will deliver a low-cost (5-10% of the feed cost) process capable of rapid, high-throughput processing of the recycled materials. The process and use of its product will contribute to the reduction of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by enabling vehicle lightweighting and improving sustainability of U.S. manufacturing through recycling energy-intensive carbon fiber material.
