NANO-CLAY TETHERED SHAPE MEMORY POLYURETHANE NANOCOMPOSITES

摘要

The magnitude of recovery force in shape memory polymers is usually low and must be augmented. In this work, a network is introduced in shape memory thermoplastic polyurethane (PU) by the addition of reactive nanoclay in an effort to improve the recovery force. In this case, nanoclay particles were allowed to tether to PU chains by chemical bonding. This report covers preliminary results on thermal, mechanical, and shape memory properties of clay-PU nanocomposites.