Spider-silk-like shape memory polymer fiber for vibration damping

摘要

In this study, the static and dynamic properties of shape memory polyurethane (SMPU) fiber are reported and compared to those of spider dragline silk. Although the polymeric fiber has a lower strength compared to spider dragline silks (0.2-0.3 GPa versus 1.1 GPa), it possesses much higher toughness (276-289 MJ m~(-3) versus 160 MJ m~(-3)), due to its excellent extensibility. The dynamic mechanical tests reveal that SMPU fiber has a high damping capacity (tan δ = 0.10-0.35) which is comparable to or even higher than that of spider silks (tan δ = 0.15). In addition, we found that, different programming methods change the shape memory and damping properties of the fiber in different ways and cold-drawing programming is more advocated in structural applications. These results suggest that the SMPU fiber has similar vibration damping and mechanical properties as spider silk, and may find applications in lightweight engineering structures.