Polymer Testing (Nov 2021)

Development of thermoplastic epoxy filaments with shape memory properties

  • Baoji Hu,
  • Hong Xia,
  • Fan Liu,
  • Qing-Qing Ni

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 103
p. 107374

Abstract

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In this paper, an epoxy resin mixture composed of epoxy and phenol monomers is used to prepare thermoplastic epoxy polymer (EP-TP) through a polymerization reaction and shape memory thermoplastic epoxy filament (SMEF-TP) was successfully developed for the first time through a melt-drawing process. Tensile tests showed that the yield stress of the developed SMEF-TP reached 63 MPa, which is an increase of 54% compared with EP-TP films. Shape memory experiments showed that the developed SMEF-TP has excellent shape memory performance, with a shape fixation rate of 97%, a shape recovery rate of over 97%, and good stability in cycling. Based on the shape memory performance analysis, the shape recovery stress of the SMEF-TP was characterized. Shape recovery stress responded to temperature stability and increased with the increase of strain, reaching 1.45 MPa at a strain of 35%. The SMEF-TP can reach an energy density of 0.066 J/cm3 during thermal actuation and shows greater application potential when processed into textiles. In addition, the chemical structure, thermal performance, and dynamic mechanical performance of SMEF-TPs are analyzed. The developed SMEF-TP shows excellent shape memory performance, and the output shape recovery stress is more than 5 times that of EP-TP film, which provides huge application potential in the fields of artificial muscles and smart textiles.

Keywords