One-way thermo-responsive shape memory polymer nanocomposite derived from polycaprolactone and polystyrene-block-polybutadiene-block-polystyrene packed with carbon nanofiber

Abstract

Shape-memory polymer nanocomposite (SMPNC) blends with thermoresponsive shape memory capability have received increasing interests and have been a grooming research area due to its potential applications. In the present study, the polymer blend comprising of Polycaprolactone (PCL) and Polystyrene-block-Polybutadiene-block-Polystyrene (SBS) is prepared by melting and blending method, followed by the addition of carbon nanofibers (CNF), to provide the blend with excellent shape memory property stimulated by temperature. In this polymeric blend SBS, PCL, and CNF are acted as an elastomer, switch polymer and conductive filler, respectively. The two-phase morphology of components in the blend is confirmed using Scanning Electrode Microscopic (SEM) images, Polarised Optical Microscopic (POM) images, and stress-strain plots. The immiscibility between the microstructures is revealed from the Differential Scanning Calorimetric (DSC) results. Characterization techniques such as X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and shape memory test are also conducted. The crystallinity of the synthesized composite is influenced by the PCL content. As the PCL content increases, crystalline nature also increases. From TGA results, the thermal stability of the composites is found to be decreasing from PCL 5 to PCL 100. The tensile and shape memory results show an optimized one-way SMPNC system with good shape recovery and fixing performances.