Sustainable Composite Materials Technologies

Dear Colleagues,

Technology regarding sustainable materials is advancing rapidly in order to achieve zero-carbon legislation targets. Agencies are promoting the use of sustainable technologies to address abrupt climate change and exponentially growing energy demands. From the environmental perspective, the deployment of urban and futuristic sustainable materials technologies is essential. Composite materials characteristically support sustainable technology solutions due to their excellent specific strength, dimensional stability, and recyclability. Advanced composite materials efficiently contribute towards the initiative for a carbon-neutral society; e.g., lightweight composites for electrical vehicle (EV) structural parts impact energy consumption towards reduced emissions.

Considering life cycle assessment (LCA), the efficient management of plastics and composites needs attention in consideration to environmental implications. The key issues associated with the sustainability of composites are: landfill disposal, limited choice of commercially available bio compatible polymer/bio resins/reinforcements, and a lack of recycling technologies to reuse composites at the end-of-life stage. The existing recycling methods are limited and have low throughputs; the retrieval fibrous reinforcements are damaged with reduced fiber strength, and matrix polymer is often sacrificial.

The advancement of technologies regarding composite materials can accomplish enhanced sustainability goals. Some allied R&D initiatives include the industrial implementation of scaled-up processing technology; e.g., the thermoplastic/bio-plastics-based pre-preg manufacturing process, advanced tailored fiber placement methods, the utilization of novel composite recycling techniques, and compelling composites designs, etc.

The key themes of this Special Issue include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Lightweight, sustainable composite manufacturing technologies.
• Techno-economic and life cycle assessment (LCA) of advanced composites.
• Circular economy solution for composite recycling.
• Efficient composite recycling by endorsing blockchain technologies and artificial intelligence (AI).
• Advanced materials and composites for next-generation additive manufacturing technologies; multi-scale printing applications; conductive materials, ceramics, and metal printing, high performance plastics for printable structures, etc.
• Recycling mechanism for fiber-reinforced composites; an easily repositioned and reused process, recycling of composites more efficiently at the end of their working life.
• Advanced debonding/disbanding mechanism of composite structures: composite–composite/composites–metal joints.
• Advanced bioplastics, bio-composite materials.
• Next-generation composites for aviation (aircraft primary and secondary structures), lightweight automotive, and marine offshore
• Composite materials development for harsh environment utilities; elevated temperatures, pressure, extreme loading, and humid and corrosive conditions.
• Fiber-reinforced polymer composites processing utilizing carbon fiber/glass fibers/aramid fiber/natural fiber.
• Composite materials for rapid manufacturing and prototyping, load bearing properties, and structural rigidity applications utilizing engineering and specialty polymers, e.g., PEEK, PES, PPS, high-temperature nylons and epoxies, etc.
• Pre-preg technologies for rapid manufacturing using a variety of engineering and specialty plastics.
• Sustainable composites: green composites materials: bio-compatibility, self-healing, repair properties, etc.
• Sustainable, energy-saving coatings materials. Metals/ceramics/polymer-based durable coatings.
• Tribological analyses for composite materials: bio-tribology, nano-tribology, green-tribology, lubricants, lubrication, and fuels.
• Composite materials for structural battery applications: lightweight energy storage technology for batteries and other electronic applications such as the proliferation of drones and electric vehicle (EV) structures.

Dr. Mohit Sharma
Dr. Anthony Comer
Dr. Dipa Roy
Dr. Ajay Kumar Kadiyala
Dr. Manunya Okhawilai
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• bio-composites
• recyclability
• lightweight composites
• sustainable composites
• remanufacturing
• rapid prototyping
• high throughput composites
• bioactivity/biodegradability
• bioresorbable composites
• composite mimicking natural fibers/materials, etc.