Electro-induced shape-memory polymer nanocomposite containing conductive particles and short fibers

This present paper is focused on the effect of conductive particulate and fibrous fillers on the characterized property of styrene-based shape memory polymer incorporating carbon black (CB) and short carbon fiber (SCF). It was shown that the particulate additives are dispersed homogeneously within matrix and served as interconnections between the fibers, while the fibrous additives may be considered as a rigid long aggregate of carbon, leading to easy formation of continuous conductive networks. The glass transition temperature of nanocomposites drops sharply as compared with that of pure SMP from the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). For the composite containing 5 wt% CB and 2 wt% SCF, the storage modulus increases by 16.2% compared to that of the composite containing 5 wt% CB and 1 wt% SCF; the peak of tangent delta curve is an alternative definition of Tg, thus Tg defined in such a way is determined as 69.44°C from Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer (DMA) test which is higher than 25.78°C obtained from DSC test. The electrical conductivity of the composite achieves 3 S/cm by four-point Van De Pauw method, and the shape recovery can be activated with a constant voltage of 25 V through them.