Thermal and flame-retardant properties of epoxy vitrimers based on disulfide bonds

Linear plastic economy leads to an unmanageable accumulation of plastic waste in the ecosystem. A change towards a sustainable circular plastics economy must be achieved. Especially the recyclability of thermosets and thermoset composites is limited and challenging. The development of reprocessable, reusable and recyclable thermosets is therefore of great importance. Vitrimers offer great potential in terms of recyclability as the incorporation of dynamic covalent bonds into a thermoset network provides a powerful method to recycle and reshape these plastics by topology rearrangements. For many applications especially in the transportation sector the thermal and mechanical properties of plastics are essential. Currently, thermoset based composites are mainly and extensively used for several interior applications. Vitrimers show very similar mechanical properties to thermosets. However, vitrimers consist of a dynamic covalent network, which changes its topology by thermal activation – offering a great potential to be more safe-, sustainable- and recyclable-by design. For application in the transportation sector, the thermal behavior and flame-retardant properties are of great importance.