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Electric conductive shape-memory polymer with anisotropic electro-thermo-mechanical properties
von Xin Lan, Prof. Dr. Jin Song Leng, Dr. Wei Min Huang, Na Liu, Dr. Louis Soo Jay Phee, Quan Yua
Shape-memory polymers (SMPs) have a recoverable strain of a few 100 %. They have great potential for many applications. For instance, they might be the best material for morphing of unmanned aviation vehicles.
Among different types of SMPs, thermo-responsive SMPs are more promising. Since SMPs are intrinsically electrically non-conductive, an external heating system is required for their operation. By blending with conductive particles, the polymer can be conveniently heated up by Joule heat, just like that in shape-memory alloys. This approach is convenient but not without problems. These particles may affect the properties (e. g., shape recovery, strength, transition temperature, etc) of the resulted composites significantly.
In this paper, we report the fabrication and characterisation of electrically conductive SMPs, which have anisotropic electro-thermo-mechanical properties. This technique provides a way for realising electrically conductive SMPs with designed properties along the particular directions, therefore, the optimised electro-thermo-mechanical response in actuation. This approach is also applicable to other conductive polymers.