Engineering Thermal and Light Dual‐Triggered Thermosetting Shape Memory Polyimide Nanocomposites with Superior Toughness and Rapid Remote Actuation Properties

Abstract

To meet a variety of application scenarios, high‐performance shape memory polymers require not only excellent mechanical and shape memory properties but also a multistimulus response. Herein, this article reports a near infrared (NIR) light‐triggered thermosetting shape memory polyimide (PI)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposite with a high transition temperature, excellent shape memory behaviors, superior robustness, and fast light‐induced shape recovery. The nanocomposite exhibits unexceptionable mechanical properties with breaking strain up to 44.1% and toughness up to 41.7 MJ m−3 at a low content of GO (1 wt%) on account of the good dispersion of GO in the PI matrix and the formed hierarchical structure similar to Nacre. The nanocomposites also have high glass transition temperatures above 200 °C and exhibit a great high‐temperature shape memory effect with a shape fixation rate above 99% and a shape recovery rate above 98%. In addition, with the aid of the efficient photothermal conversion property of rGO, enabling the induction of a temporary shape that completely recovers to the original shape within 7 s by sequential NIR irradiation. It is envisioned that high‐performance nanocomposites with high‐temperature shape memory and excellent mechanical and multistimuli properties will be widely applied in harsh environments, such as alarms, actuation, and so on.