Experimental study on nanosecond laser thermal decomposition of CFRP and recycling of carbon fibers

The recycling of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) waste has become an inevitable trend with the development of science and industry today. A method for recycling carbon fiber is presented in this article. An infrared laser was used to gasify CFRP surface resin and then surface carbon fibers can be recycled. The recycling process parameter window and the influence law of laser parameters on the recycled carbon fiber were investigated from the difficulty of extracting carbon fibers and the performances of the recycled carbon fibers. The results reveal that the parameter range for recovering carbon fibers narrows as laser power increases. If laser density is too high, the graphitization degree of the carbon fibers will become serious. The degree of graphitization of the recovered carbon fibers is significantly influenced by laser irradiation. Compared with the original fibers without laser irradiation, laser-induced graphitization improves the tensile modulus of the recovered carbon fiber while decreasing its tensile strength. The tensile strength of the recycled carbon fiber can reach 83% of that of the original fiber, and the tensile modulus can be enhanced by 12%. By carefully controlling laser processing, good performance of the recycled carbon fibers can be achieved.