Carbon Fiber Reinforced Shape Memory Nanocomposites Incorporated With Highly Conductive Carbon Nanopaper for Electro Actuation

Abstract

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are one of the most popular smart materials due to light weight and high elastic deformation capability. In this study, highly conductive carbon nanofibers paper (CNFP) was coated on the surface of SMP as a conductive layer for electro actuation of SMP. To overcome the drawback of low modulus and low strength of shape memory polymer (SMP), continuous carbon fiber reinforcement was also incorporated with SMP by autoclave processing. The dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) result showed over 600% increase of storage modulus of SMP by introducing carbon fiber reinforcement. Also, the shape recovery time of SMP has been reduced over 150%, while the recovery ratio of SMP has been improved to 99% by incorporating with carbon fiber reinforcement. Additionally, the mechanical property degradation of SMP composites has been investigated after different electro actuation cycles. After 50 actuation cycles, the decrease of flexural modulus of SMP composites is negligible (< 2%), and the ultimate flexural strength of SMP composites only decreased 25%. The SMP composite shows high strength and modulus, and good durability.