Mathias Destarac presented vitrimers at the International Paris Air Show

Mathias Destarac, head of the P3R team, was at the International Paris Air Show on 21st of June 2023, on the Epsilon Composite stand, as part of the EVERGREEN project, being carried out at the IRT Saint Exupéry for which he has been technical advisor on composites chemistry since 2016.

In particular, he presented vitrimer composites, a technology at the heart of this project, which aims to demonstrate their relevance by testing their ability to be repaired, reshaped, reprocessed and assembled. The scientists seek to understand the behaviour of epoxy-based vitrimers during their processing (impregnation, pultrusion, RTM, draping, consolidation), from the material/process relationship through to characterisation. The ultimate aim is to develop new materials for aerospace applications.

At the laboratory, Marc Guerre, researcher from the P3R team, is the specialist in these innovative materials. In collaboration with ICA and the IRT Saint Exupéry, he is currently supervising a thesis on this topic is underway, with promising initial results produced by Vincent Schenk, a PhD student in the P3R team and winner of the SAMPE France 2022 competition.
A second thesis led by Joséphine de Calbiac, also a PhD student in the P3R team and supervised by Marc Guerre, was recently launched with CNES for space applications.

To find out more about the EVERGREEN project, have a look on this video.