Vitrimer resin development for aeronautical application

Due to the environmental challenges the aeronautical industry is facing, the development of recyclable aeronautical chemistries have recently raised huge interest. Within this context, different alternatives are being considered with the aim of obtaining new resins with current thermoset resin chemical and mechanical performance, while showing reprocessing, repairability and recyclability capabilities, like thermoplastics. New vitrimer resins, based on dynamic covalent chemistry, become a very attractive alternative to combine the main advantages of aeronautical thermosets (processing conditions / temperature, means, properties…) and thermoplastics (recycling, welding…). Therefore, they can be the solution to overcome the current limitations of thermoset epoxy resin, which is widely used in composite airframe. This project, framed within the national funding PTA (Plan Tecnológico Aeronáutico), was focused on the preliminary development of aeronautical vitrimer resin for composite airframe. It was proposed as continuation of the EU Horizon 2020 consortium AIRPOXY led by CIDETEC, where a first generation of aeronautical RTM vitrimer was developed and characterised, while a second generation vitrimer development was only started. This chemistry is based on the use of dynamic aromatic disulfides as hardener. In the first 2021 project phase, following key activities were performed: Definition of targets or reference values for aeronautical infusion resin Second generation of infusion vitrimer: development completion and characterization Flat CFRP laminates with second generation vitrimer: production and thermoforming trials. Next steps of the project in 2022 and 2023, will be focused on developing, evaluating and demonstrating an aeronautical prepreg based on vitrimer resin with higher Tg in line with current aeronautical resin values.