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On the size effect of additives in amorphous shape memory polymers
E. Zirdehi, G. Eggeler, F. Varnik.
Materials, MDPI AG,, 14, 327, (2021)
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On the Size Effect of Additives in Amorphous Shape Memory Polymers
by Elias M. Zirdehi
1 [ORCID] , Hakan Dumlu
2, Gunther Eggeler
2 and Fathollah Varnik
1,* [ORCID]
1
Interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Materials Simulation (ICAMS), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany
2
Institute for Materials (IFM), Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Materials 2021, 14(2), 327; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14020327
Received: 13 December 2020 / Revised: 30 December 2020 / Accepted: 6 January 2021 / Published: 10 January 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Strong Coupling of Thermo-Chemical and Thermo-Mechanical States in Applied Materials)
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Abstract
Small additive molecules often enhance structural relaxation in polymers. We explore this effect in a thermoplastic shape memory polymer via molecular dynamics simulations. The additive-to-monomer size ratio is shown to play a key role here. While the effect of additive-concentration on the rate of shape recovery is found to be monotonic in the investigated range, a non-monotonic dependence on the size-ratio emerges at temperatures close to the glass transition. This work thus identifies the additives’ size to be a qualitatively novel parameter for controlling the recovery process in polymer-based shape memory materials.
Keyword(s): shape memory polymers; size effect of additives; molecular dynamics simulations
DOI: 10.3390/ma14020327
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