Recycling of polymer composites by melt-extrusion has been limited to reinforced thermoplastics. Here, we demonstrate several melt-extrusion recycling cycles for glass fiber-reinforced elastomers cross-linked with a reversible cross-linker (SS). In comparison, reinforced elastomers lacking reversible cross-linking (CC) exhibited clogging during successive melt-extrusion recycling. Furthermore, commercially available starting materials, such as maleated polypropylene (PPgMA), maleated ethylene propylene rubber (EPRgMA), and short-cut glass fibers, were utilized. We showed that when tetrasulfide functionalized glass fibers (SGF) were embedded in SS cross-linked composites (CompSS-SGF), disulfide exchange reactions were further activated. This was manifested in the high tensile strength of 10 MPa and 220% elongation, which were remarkably higher than the 6 MPa and 17% elongation of CC cross-linked composites (CompCC-SGF). Moreover, the higher interactions of CompSS-SGF contributed to at least a 25% increase in tensile strength and storage modulus and a 36% increase in creep resistance compared to composite counterparts prepared with as-received glass fibers (CompSS-AGF) or clean glass fibers (CompSS-CGF). Additionally, the disulfide exchanges in CompSS-SGF possibly contributed to a approximate to 10% higher tensile strength after recycling. This simple up-scalable approach opens new avenues for the development of fiber-reinforced cross-linked elastomers with facile processability, higher dimensional stability, and up-scalable recycling processes.
QC 20250619