Tensile behaviour and characterization of amine treated nanoclay reinforced epoxy/polyurethane blends and composites for shape memory applications

Polymer nanocomposites are the better choice for most of the applications because of its less weight and tailorability to suit different applications. Several nanocomposites have been fabricated with nanoparticles reinforcement and fibre reinforcement. But most of them were made to satisfy few criteria or one or two functions. Shape memory polymers composites (SMPCs) and blends exhibit novel properties that are different from the conventional materials and thus can be utilized in various applications. These composites are needed for applications such as smart clothing, flexible displays, stretchable circuits, strain gauges, implantable devices, high-stroke microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and actuators where both mechanical properties and shape memory properties are important. The processing and characterization of these materials with nanoparticles produces better mechanical properties. Epoxy is the resin having good mechanical properties, when blended with polyurethane and nanoparticles fillers exhibit shape memory properties. This paper gives the fabrication and characterization methods for shape memory polymer composites developed with amine treated nanoclay as reinforcement and analyses tensile behaviour and moisture absorption and surface characteristics. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is used to identify the bond and functional groups and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) are done to identify the glass transition temperature and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis for studying the morphology and tensile test is done to test the stress-strain behaviour. The reinforcement has shown significant improvement in glass transition temperature and mechanical properties compared to pure shape memory polymers.