Shape memory and self-healing in polymers offer numerous opportunities for the development of new materials that mimic nature. Although fibrous heterogeneous morphologies are particularly useful in many applications, precise morphological control requires orchestrated efforts at nano and micro scale lengths. These studies focus on the developments of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) capable of full recovery of mechanical properties upon mechanical damage under ambient conditions. During self-repair, conformational entropic energy stored during damage is initially released to facilitate a wound closure, followed by transient conformational changes of macromolecular segments resulting in H-bonding reformation and inter-diffusion, which leads to mechanical strength recovery. While the shape memory entropic energy stored during mechanical damage is manifested by the presence of viscoelastic length transitions (VLT) detected by dynamic mechanical analysis, the presence of phase-separated morphologies and the formation of interphase facilitates self-healing manifested by the recovery of mechanical properties.

Shape memory contributions to self-healing of thermoplastic polymers

254th National Meeting (2017)

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