Biodegradable magnetic‐sensitive shape memory poly(ɛ‐caprolactone)/Fe3O4 nanocomposites

ABSTRACT A novel biodegradable magnetic‐sensitive shape memory poly(ɛ‐caprolactone) nanocomposites, which were crosslinked with functionalized Fe 3 O 4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), were synthesized via in situ polymerization method. Fe 3 O 4 MNPs pretreated with γ‐(methacryloyloxy) propyl trimethoxy silane (KH570) were used as crosslinking agents. Because of the crosslinking of functionalized Fe 3 O 4 MNPs with poly(ɛ‐caprolactone) prepolymer, the properties of the nanocomposites with different content of functionalized Fe 3 O 4 MNPs, especially the mechanical properties, were significantly improved. The nanocomposites also showed excellent shape memory properties in both 60 °C hot water and alternating magnetic field ( f = 60, 90 kHz, H = 38.7, 59.8 kA m −1 ). In hot water bath, all the samples had shape recovery rate ( R r ) higher than 98% and shape fixed rate ( R f ) nearly 100%. In alternating magnetic field, the R r of composites was over 85% with the highest at 95.3%. In addition, the nanocomposites also have good biodegradability. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135 , 45652.