VATIS UPDATE Article

A team of researchers from Institute of Biomaterial Science, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, and Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, has shown that a reversible shape-memory effect (rSME) is achievable for polyurethane water-blown semicrystalline foams. Water-blown polyurethane (PU) foams are of enormous technological interest as they are widely applied in various fields, i.e., consumer goods, medicine, automotive or aerospace industries. The research has been published in the journal Polymers.

Researchers selected commercially available crystallizable poly(ε-caprolactone)-diols of different molecular weight for foams synthesis, followed by investigations of morphology, thermal, thermomechanical and shape-memory properties of obtained compositions. Densities of synthesized foams varied from 110 to 180 kg·m–3, while peak melting temperatures were composition-dependent and changed from 36 to 47 °C, while the melting temperature interval was around 15 K. All semicrystalline foams exhibited excellent one-way SME with shape-fixity ratios slightly above 100% and shape-recovery ratios from the second cycle of 99%.