Thermal aging kinetic and effects on mechanical behavior of fully recycled composite based on polypropylene/polyethylene blend

The effect of thermal oxidation of a fully recycled carbon fibers reinforced stabilized polypropylene/polyethylene blend on the mechanical properties has been studied at 120, 130 and 140 °C. In a first step, several analyses by FTIR and UV spectrometry and differential scanning calorimetry were performed in order to detect and monitor the evolution of the antioxidants and oxidation products in the materials. This approach aims to well understand and identify the aging mechanisms that will be modeled in a second step in a kinetic model capable of predicting the evolution of carbonyl build-up while taking into account the presence of the different antioxidants. Modeling results showed a good correlation between the kinetic behavior and the obtained experimental data. Furthermore, the effect of thermal aging on the mechanical behaviors of the composite and the matrix were studied at the macroscopic scale at different strain rates. It has been shown that the thermal oxidation affects only the elongation at break. The numerical values of the oxidation products generated by the kinetic model allowed linking the evolution of the mechanical behavior under aging with the physicochemical state of the material