Polyurethane‐Carbon Nanotube Nanocomposites Prepared by In‐Situ Polymerization with Electroactive Shape Memory

Abstract

In‐situ polymerization was employed to achieve well‐dispersed carbon nanotube‐reinforced polyurethane composites. In‐situ polymerization showed predominant as primarily dispersal of carbon nanotubes in the matrix polymer according to scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation and atomic force microscopy (AFM) images. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results suggested that the addition of multi walled nanotubes (MWNTs) into polyurethane increased the rate of crystallization, this effect being more significant in polyurethane (PU)‐MWNT composite, which was prepared by an in‐situ polymerization process. The composites obtained by in‐situ polymerization showed enhanced mechanical properties as well as good electroactive shape memory. The original shape of the sample was almost recovered with bending mode when an electric field of 50 V was applied. Keywords: shape memory polymercarbon nanotubepolyurethaneelectroactivein‐situ polymerization Acknowledgments This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant (KRF‐2004‐005‐D00046) and the SRC/ERC program of MOST/KOSEF (R11‐2005‐065).