Zhejiang University's Gaochao Research Group has developed ultra-fast response shape memory polymer/graphene composites.

Release time:

2019-05-07

Shape memory polymer materials can deform according to the established program under external stimulation, which makes it have great application prospects in actuators, sensors, drug delivery and so on. Due to the low thermal conductivity and slow chain motion rate of the polymer material itself, the response speed of the shape memory polymer material still has a large gap compared with other shape memory materials (such as shape memory alloy).

Recently, Zhejiang University's Gao Chao (co-communication), Xu Zhen (co-communication) team, marxist-leninist (co-communication) team and other partners have worked together to break through this response speed problem. In this work, a highly stretchable graphene aerogel was used as a template to construct a shape memory network composed of polycaprolactone (polycaprolactone,PCL) nano-films (2.5-60 nm). Among them, the graphene nano-network is used as a fast energy conversion and energy injection channel, and the PCL nano-network is used as a fast energy transfer and deformation carrier. This aerogel nanocomposite with PCL/graphene interpenetrating network structure has a response time of only 50 milliseconds, a response speed of 175±40 mm/s and a maximum deformation of about 100% under electrical signal stimulation.

Traditional shape memory polymer blend composites and composite aerogels (this paper)

Microstructure of Composite Aerogel Materials

Shape response properties of graphene/PCL composite aerogels

Shape Memory Behavior of Graphene/PCL Composite Monolithic

Application of Graphene/PCL Composite Aerogel

The ultra-light composite aerogel material with fast response has broad application prospects. It can be designed as an ultra-fast fuse to protect precision circuits. Under overload conditions, it can open circuit within 134 ms to protect electrical appliances. At the same time, it can also be combined with the electromagnet, as a miniature oscillator. This work was published in ACS Nano under the title "Millisecond Responseof Shape Memory Polymer Nanocomposite Aerogel Powered by Stretchable GrapheneFramework.

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