Abstract
Although various shape memory polymers (SMPs) or diverse applications have been widely reported, the SMPs based on rubbers have been rarely realized due to the low triggering temperature of rubbers. In another aspect, the SMPs based on sustainable substances are highly desired for the growing shortage in fossil resources. In the present study, we accordingly developed the sustainable SMPs with tunable triggering temperature, based on natural rubber (NR) and ferulic acid (FA) as the raw materials. Specifically, the SMPs are based on a crosslinked network of epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) crosslinked by in situ formed zinc ferulate (ZDF) via oxa-Michael reaction. The excellent shape memory effect (SME) is found in these SMPs, as evidenced by the high fixity/recovery ratio and the tunable triggering temperature. With the incorporation of natural halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), the stress and recovery rate of the SMPs are found to be tunable, which widens the application of this kind of SMPs. The combination of adoption of sustainable raw materials, and the excellent and tunable SME makes these SMPs potentially useful in many applications, such as various actuators and heat-shrinkable package materials.
Highlights
SMPs are smart materials that can change shape and memorize their original shape when exposed to an external stimulus, such as temperature, light, electricity and solvent [1 –5]
We developed the sustainable SMPs with tunable triggering temperature, based on natural rubber (NR) and ferulic acid (FA) as the raw materials
zinc oxide (ZnO) and FeA were incorporated into SBR, and the resulting FeA/ZnO/SBR compound was treated at 160 °C for different time
Summary
SMPs are smart materials that can change shape and memorize their original shape when exposed to an external stimulus, such as temperature, light, electricity and solvent [1 –5]. SMPs possess a fixing phase provided by a crosslinked network as well as a transition phase supported by the glass transition and/or crystalline melting transition [8]. SMPs are deformed at a temperature above the transition temperature (Ttrans) and the deformed sample is cooled to a temperature below Ttrans under stress to fix the temporary shape. When reheated above Ttrans without stress, SMPs recover their permanent shape due to entropy elasticity of polymer chains [9]. SMPs have attracted significant attention due to their diverse applications such as medical devices, sensors, switches and selfdeployable structures [10 –13]
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