2016 journal article

Phase-Change Thermoplastic Elastomer Blends for Tunable Shape Memory by Physical Design

INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY RESEARCH, 55(49), 12590–12597.

By: K. Mineart n, S. Tallury n, T. Li *, B. Lee * & R. Spontak n 

co-author countries: United States of America πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
Source: Web Of Science
Added: August 6, 2018

Intelligent polymeric materials are of increasing interest in contemporary technologies due to their low cost, light weight, facile processability, and inherent ability to change properties, shape, and/or size upon exposure to an external stimulus. In this study, we consider thermally programmable shape-memory polymers (SMPs), which typically rely on chemistry-specific macromolecules composed of two functional species. An elastic, network-forming component permits stretched polymer chains to return to their relaxed state, and a switching component affords at least one thermal transition to regulate fixation of a desired strain state and return to a previous strain state. Here, we produce designer shape-memory materials by combining thermoplastic elastomeric triblock copolymers with a midblock-selective phase-change additive, thereby yielding shape-memory polymer blends (SMPBs). These materials not only exhibit tunable switch points but also controllable recovery kinetics. We further highlight the versatility of SMPBs through laminate welding for intermediate multishape fabrication and liquid metal inclusion for shape-memory electronics.