Shape Memory Properties of Polyurethane/Graphene Nanoplatelets Nanocomposite

Due to the unique properties of shape memory polymers (SMPs) including low density, good price, high deformability, reproducibility, molecular tailoring and good processing many applications have found for these materials in different fields. Shape memory properties of the nanocomposite samples based on polyurethane/graphene nanoplatelet (GNp) were investigated. The improvement in performance of SMPs by adding graphene nanoplatelet is the main hypothesis of this study. At first, two types of polyurethane were synthesized using different formulations (for obtaining the samples with different hard segments) and then nanocomposites samples including GNp were produced through solution method.  Two different polyurethanes with hard segment contents of 23.9% and 24.4% were synthesized. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), shape fixity and shape recover values of the samples (as indices of shape memory properties) were employed to characterize the synthesis of polyurethane and performance of shape memory behavior of the nanocomposites.    The FTIR spectra showed that the formation of polyurethane was successfully accomplished. The SEM micrographs confirmed the good dispersion of nanoparticles in the matrix and there were no agglomerations and aggregation of particles. No characteristics peaks (crystallization and melting peaks) were observed in DSC thermograms for samples based on toluene di-isocyanate which means the synthesized polyurethane was fully amorphous without crystalline and regular regions. While the samples based on hexamethylene di-isocyanate showed the regular and crystalline regions. Shape fixity and shape recover values of the samples were in the range of 70-90%. These indices were increased by GNp addition.