A preliminary study on anti-irradiation performance of epoxy shape memory polymer

As a new class of smart material, shape memory polymer (SMP) receives more and more attention. In this paper, in addition to the fabrication of a new type of epoxy SMP, the thermo-mechanical properties of the polymer with/without gamma irradiation were investigated and compared systematically. The radiation source is Co-60 and the total dosage of radiation is 1×104Gy. Changes of network structures of the polymer were investigated by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The influence of gamma irradiation on thermo and mechanical properties of the polymer were investigated by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and tensile test, respectively. Furthermore, shape recovery behaviors of the polymer before/after the irradiation were compared too. Results show that the epoxy SMP possesses good chemical stability, glass transition temperature (Tg) determined by DSC decreased by 7°C after the irradiation. The gamma radiation has a slight influence on storage modulus, loss modulus and tan delta, respectively. No considerable change was found both in tensile strength and elongation at break after the gamma radiation. Finally, the shape recovery ratio of the polymer is near 100% with and without the gamma irradiation. Based on the above results, it can be demonstrated that the epoxy SMP prepared in the study possesses not only good thermo-mechanical properties but unique anti irradiation performance. The epoxy SMP shows potential for application of aerospace fields.