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3D printing thermo-responsive shape memory polymer composite based on PCL/TPU blends

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Abstract

Polycaprolactone (PCL) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), are the most common shape-memory materials, but towards PCL/TPU blends, little attention was paid to the FDM printability and shape memory properties. Therefore, according to the PCL/TPU composites with different compositions, this work focus on the process parameters in fabricating composites filament and 3D printing (FDM), properties characterization analysis (i.e., TGA, DSC, FTIR, SEM, mechanical features, shape-memory effects). Combining TGA with FTIR analysis, we can find out that the FDM printing process does not affect the thermal properties of PCL/TPU composites, and no new chemical groups appeared. By mechanical testing, the tensile strength decreased with the increasing TPU content of the blends, which is also consistent with SEM measurements. Moreover, the DSC measurements can assist in testing the shape memory recovery ratio and shape memory fixity rate of each PCL/TPU composite and verify there is no evident effect of 3D printing process parameters on shape memory effects. Finally,3D printing (FDM) functional structures further demonstrate the shape memory properties of the new composite. In summary, this work can provide some experimental foundation and process guidance of one category of new material.

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Acknowledgements

This project was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51905438), the Key Research and Development Program of Shanxi Province (Grant No. 2022GY-228), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No.31020210506006), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2019QY(Y)0502). We would like to thank the Analytical & Testing Center of Northwestern Polytechnical University for DSC, SEM and TGA tests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Industry Engineering Department, School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, People’s Republic of China

    Yanmei Wang, Juan Zhang, Mingyang Li, Mingju Lei, Yanen Wang & Qinghua Wei

  2. Institute of Medical Research, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, People’s Republic of China

    Yanmei Wang, Juan Zhang, Mingyang Li, Mingju Lei, Yanen Wang & Qinghua Wei

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  1. Yanmei Wang
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  2. Juan Zhang
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  3. Mingyang Li
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Correspondence to Qinghua Wei.

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Wang, Y., Zhang, J., Li, M. et al. 3D printing thermo-responsive shape memory polymer composite based on PCL/TPU blends. J Polym Res 29, 243 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-022-03095-2

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