Nano‐metal oxide fillers in thermo‐responsive polycaprolactone‐based polymer nanocomposites smart materials: Impact on thermo‐mechanical, and shape memory properties
Sithara Gopinath, N.N. Adarsh, P. Radhakrishnan Nair, Suresh Mathew
Abstract
Abstract The present study introduces the properties of three thermo‐responsive shape memory polymer nanocomposites (SMPCs), viz. SMPC–NiO (SMP with nickel oxide), SMPC‐Fe 2 O 3 (SMP with iron oxide), and SMPC‐Fe 2 NiO 4 (SMP with iron nickel oxide) along with the neat SMP blend. Styrene‐Butadiene rubber and poly ε‐caprolactone (PCL) polymer are the vital part, which forms the backbone of polymer‐elastomer blend matrix. This study helps to understand the effect and influence of these metal oxide nanofillers' integrated blend on their different inbuilt properties. The tensile test and dynamic mechanical analysis studies confirmed that SMPC‐Fe 2 NiO 4 holds a large elastic modulus value and very rigid compared to other SMPCs. Thermal decomposition studies using differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric (TG) analysis, and TG‐gas chromatography and mass spectrometry results show that the nanocomposites undergoes a two‐stage decomposition process. The shape memory test reveals that the time taken for temporary shape recovery is high for SMPC‐Fe 2 NiO 4 because of its rigid nature and low for SMPC‐Fe 2 O 3 . The results revealed that, from this exploratory study, the integration of metal oxide nanopowder fillers, especially Fe 2 O 3 with neat SMP, showed better properties.