Wind turbine blades (WTBs) have always been considered one of the greatest engineering achievements. They primarily use glass fiber-reinforced polymers (GFRPs) because of their lightweight nature, impressive strength-to-weight ratio, and durability. Until now, typical disposal methods of End-of-Life (EoL) WTBs are landfill or incineration. However, such practices are neither environmentally sustainable nor compliant with current regulations. This study investigates a low-temperature solvolysis process using a poly(ethylene glycol)/NaOH system under ambient pressure for efficient decomposition of the polyester matrix, promoting the potential of chemical recycling as an alternative to landfilling and incineration by offering a viable method for recovering glass fibers from WTB waste. A parametric study evaluated the influence of reaction time (4–5.5 h) and catalyst-to-resin ratio (0.1–2.0 g NaOH per g resin) on solvolysis efficiency. Optimal conditions (200 g PEG200, 12.5 g NaOH, 10 g GFRP, 5.5 h) achieved an ~80% decomposition efficiency and fibers exhibiting minimal surface degradation. SEM and EDX analyses confirmed limited morphological damage, while excessive NaOH (>15 g) caused notable etching of the glass fibers. ICP-OES of liquid residues detected high Na (780 mg/L) and Si (139 mg/L) concentrations, verifying partial dissolution of the fiber structure under strongly alkaline conditions. After applying a commercial sizing agent (Hydrosize HP2-06), TGA confirmed ~1.2% sizing mass, and nanoindentation analysis showed the interfacial modulus and hardness of re-sized fibers improved by over 70% compared to unsized recycled fibers, approaching the performance of virgin fibers.

Weyl fermions (WFs) in the type-II Weyl semimetal (WSM) ${\mathrm{WTe}}_2$ are difficult to resolve experimentally because the Weyl bands disperse in an extremely narrow region of the ($E\text{−}k$) space. Here, by using DFT-assisted high-resolution ${}^{125}\mathrm{Te}$ solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) in the temperature range 50–700 K, we succeeded in detecting low energy WF excitations and monitoring their evolution with temperature. Remarkably, WFs are observed to emerge at $T\sim 120$ K, while at lower temperatures ${\mathrm{WTe}}_2$ behaves as a trivial metal. This intriguing phenomenon is induced by the rapid raise of the Fermi level upon heating, which crosses the Weyl bands only for $T>120$ K. The abrupt change of the NMR parameters at this temperature is signature of a topological Lifshitz transition instead of a cursive energy-bands crossing.