Xi Jiaxin, Shahab Shima, Mirzaeifar Reza
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech Blacksburg Virginia 24061 USA
RSC Adv. 2022 Oct 12;12(45):29162-29169. doi: 10.1039/d2ra05019f. eCollection 2022 Oct 11.
Fibrous shape memory polymers (SMPs) have received growing interest in various applications, especially in biomedical applications, which offer new structures at the microscopic level and the potential of enhanced shape deformation of SMPs. In this paper, we report on the development and investigation of the properties of acrylate-based shape memory polymer fibers, fabricated by electrospinning technology with the addition of polystyrene (PS). Fibers with different diameters are manufactured using four different PS solution concentrations (25, 30, 35, and 40 wt%) and three flow rates (1.0, 2.5, and 5.0 μL min) with a 25 kV applied voltage and 17 cm electrospinning distance. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images reveal that the average fiber diameter varies with polymer concentration and flow rates, ranging from 0.655 ± 0.376 to 4.975 ± 1.634 μm. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and stress-strain testing present that the glass transition temperature and tensile values are affected by fiber diameter distribution. The cyclic bending test directly proves that the electrospun SMP fiber webs are able to fully recover; additionally, the recovery speed is also affected by fiber diameter. With the combination of the SMP material and electrospinning technology, this work paves the way in designing and optimizing future SMP fibers properties by adjusting the fiber diameter.
纤维状形状记忆聚合物（SMPs）在各种应用中越来越受到关注，特别是在生物医学应用中，它在微观层面提供了新的结构，并具有增强SMPs形状变形的潜力。在本文中，我们报告了通过静电纺丝技术并添加聚苯乙烯（PS）制备的丙烯酸酯基形状记忆聚合物纤维的性能开发与研究。使用四种不同的PS溶液浓度（25、30、35和40 wt%）和三种流速（1.0、2.5和5.0 μL min），在25 kV的施加电压和17 cm的静电纺丝距离下制备了不同直径的纤维。扫描电子显微镜（SEM）图像显示，平均纤维直径随聚合物浓度和流速而变化，范围为0.655±0.376至4.975±1.634μm。动态力学分析（DMA）和应力-应变测试表明，玻璃化转变温度和拉伸值受纤维直径分布的影响。循环弯曲试验直接证明了静电纺丝的SMP纤维网能够完全恢复；此外，恢复速度也受纤维直径的影响。通过将SMP材料与静电纺丝技术相结合，这项工作为通过调整纤维直径来设计和优化未来SMP纤维的性能铺平了道路。
