Abstract
In recent years shape-memory polymers have been under intense investigation due to their unique mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties that could potentially make them extremely valuable in numerous engineering applications. In this manuscript, we report a polymer-template-assisted assembly manufacturing strategy used to fabricate graphite/silver nanowires/epoxy resin (PGSE) composite. In the proposed method, the porous polymer foams work as the skeleton by forming three-dimensional graphite structure, whereas the silver nanowires act as the continuous conductive network. Preliminary testing on hybrid foams after vacuum infusion showed high electrical conductivity and excellent thermal stability. Furthermore, the composites were found to recover their original shape within 60 seconds from the application of a 0.8 V mm−1 electric field. Notably, the reported shape-memory polymer composites are manufactured with readily-available raw materials, they are fast to manufacture, and are shape-controlled.
Highlights
Shape-memory polymers (SMPs) and their composites (SMPCs), can recover their original shape upon exposure to external stimuli[1]
Different from chemical vapor deposition method[28, 29], the monolayer graphite oxide (GO) achieved from Hummers method has irregular edges[30,31,32,33]
In this work we describe a simple and effective method to prepared PGSE composites
Summary
Shape-memory polymers (SMPs) and their composites (SMPCs), can recover their original (or permanent) shape upon exposure to external stimuli[1]. Zhou and co-workers proposed synthesizing the carbon nanotube sponge shape-memory polymer nanocomposite using CVD, and showed that the composite could be triggered within 10 s from the application of 10 volts[25]. Lu and co-workers concluded that the electrical actuation of SMP composites coated with 1.8 g carbon nanofiber nano-paper could recover the original shape within 140 s27. For these composite materials, the deformed shapes had to be less than 180° otherwise the shape recovery rate was found to be slower than the one proposed in this work. The shape memory composites presented in this work are likely to be a suitable candidate for the large-scale production for applications in the aerospace field and adaptive optical devices among the others
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