فن آوری پیشرفت پلیمرها و پلیمرهای کامپوزیت نسبت به پایداری: بررسی Technology advancing Polymers and Polymer Composites towards sustainability: A review

Introduction Polymers and polymer composites are low density, durable materials that can be processed into simple and complex shapes. Therefore it is hardly surprising that the demand for such materials increases every year, with an expectation that annual demand will double in the next 20 years to in excess of 600 million tonnes [1]. Plastic is a popular material for packaging, from the notorious disposable plastic carrier bag to the plastic milk bottle. Such single use plastics are a cause for concern as they become a vital lost resource if they end up in landfill. ‘The new plastics economy’ report [1] aims to encourage industry and society to move towards a ‘circular economy’ model for plastics, identifying barriers to global materials flows and enablers such as digital technologies. The European commission has proposed a ‘Plastics Strategy’ to try and mitigate against such loss of a finite resource [2] – and the vision is that by 2030 all plastic packaging on the EU market will be recyclable or reusable. Therefore technology to economically recover these polymeric materials and return them into the materials supply chain needs to be realised. Similarly, the demand for energy, another limited resource, has been instrumental in the increasing popularity of fibre reinforced polymer composites. Composites enable the light-weighting of vehicles (cars, trains, boats and aeroplanes) which results in increased fuel efficiency. In addition, the wind turbine requires lightweight turbine blades and the natural choice is fibre reinforced composites. Although composites are durable, there is waste arising from the manufacturing process, an immediate concern, and as end-of-life approaches there will be future concern for ‘disposing’ of large composite structures [3,4]. The Composites UK report [3] identifies the options for recycling composite materials and presents the environmental impact of the different recycling processes.