Tunable shape memory behaviors of poly(ethylene vinyl acetate) achieved by adding poly(L-lactide)

Abstract

In this work, different contents of poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) (20–50 wt%) were introduced into poly(ethylene vinyl acetate) (EVA) to prepare the samples with a tunable shape memory behavior. Morphological characterization demonstrated that with increasing PLLA content from 20 to 50 wt%, the blend morphology changed from sea-island structure to cocontinuous structure. In all the samples, PLLA was amorphous and it did not affect the crystallization of polyethylene part in the EVA component. The presence of PLLA greatly enhanced the storage modulus of samples, especially at relatively low temperatures. The shape memory behaviors of samples were systematically investigated and the results demonstrated that the EVA/PLLA blends exhibited a tunable shape memory effect. On one hand, PLLA accelerated the shape fixation and enhanced the fixity ratio of samples. On the other hand, PLLA reduced the dependence of shape fixity of samples on fixity temperatures. Specifically, for the first time, a critical recovery temperature was observed for the immiscible shape memory polymer blends. In this work, the critical recovery temperature was about 53 °C. At recovery temperature below the critical value, the blends exhibited smaller recovery ratios compared with the pure EVA, however, at recovery temperature above 53 °C, the blends exhibited higher recovery ratios.