Two-way shape memory polymer

• Main Author: Chng, Wei Kee
• Other Authors: -
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Composite materials
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/64083
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) have attracted numerous research efforts due to their manufacturing and highly tailorable thermo-mechanical properties. SMPs are able to temporarily program and fix to a non-equilibrium shape and are capable of recovering to the original undeformed shape upon exposure to stimulus such as temperature and light. Most SMPs are known to possess one-way shape memory effect, where one programming step is only able to produce one shape memory cycle; an additional shape memory cycle will required an extra programming step. There is this special group of polymer that is able to exhibit two-way shape memory effect, where only one programming step is required to produce multiple shape memory cycle. This two-way shape memory polymer has increasingly gained recognition by researchers in its potential usage in various industries such as aerospace and textile. This report will focus on the continuation research of this two-way shape memory polymer, covalently cross-linked Poly[ethylene-co-(vinyl acetate)] (cPEVA). Previous works on cPEVA investigated on the changes to the strain recovery rate via the changes to the Dicumyl Peroxide (DCP) percentage composition in the cPEVA from 0% to 3%. This report will continue to explore on the changes to the strain recovery by varying the percentage of DCP from 2% to 10%, using the cPEVA of 2% DCP as a reference for strain recovery rate comparison. This report will also investigate on the effect of the increased in the DCP percentage on the melting temperature and glass transition temperature of cPEVA.