Enhanced Electro-Activated Performance of Shape Memory Polymer Nanocomposites with Self-Assembled Carbon Nanofibre Template

An effective approach to significantly improve electro-activated recovery performance of shape memory polymer (SMP) nanocomposites was investigated in this study, which is based on Joule heating triggered shape recovery through formation of a three-dimensional template of self-assembled carbon nanofibres (CNFs) inside the SMP. This template approach allows effective electro-actuation and resistive heating, mainly attributing to conductive CNF assembly. Electro-activated recovery of the SMP nanocomposites was monitored and the resultant temperature distribution in the SMP nanocomposite during recovery was characterized. Furthermore, the relative thermal conductivity was simulated using ANSYS FLUENT software in order to optimize the structure design for the CNF template.