Facile recycling of anhydride-cured epoxy thermoset under mild conditions with multifunctional hydrazine hydrate

Environmental economics is accelerating the urgency to develop recycling technologies for the ever-growing quantity of discarded thermoset polymers.Herein,we developed a mild and energy-saving pro-cess for high-eficiency degradation and reuse of anhydride-cured epoxy thermoset with the aid of hy-drazine hydrate.The degradation degree of the epoxy resin reached 99.6%at 120℃ within a short time of 60min.During the reaction,the ester bonds in the cross-linked network were selectively cleaved by the amination of hydrazine hydrate,and the epoxy resin was fully converted to new monomers that con-tained hydrazide and hydroxyl groups,respectively.Moreover,the degradation mechanism of the epoxy resin in hydrazine hydrate was studied and a nucleation model was utilized to predict the actual degra-dation behavior of the system.Finally,the degradation products can be directly mixed with epoxy precur-sor to prepare a new waterborne epoxy coating with good comprehensive properties.This work not only demonstrates a new way to realize the efficient degradation of epoxy resins,but also provides a facile and efficient recycling protocol for thermosets.