An electro-active shape memory fibre by incorporating multi-walled carbon nanotubes

In this paper, an electro-active shape memory fibre was fabricated successively by incorporating multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT). The shape memory polyurethane (SMP-MWNT) composite was prepared by in situ polymerization and the SMP-MWNT fibre was prepared by melt spinning. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations of the morphology revealed that the MWNTs are axially aligned and homogenously distributed in the SMP matrix, which is helpful for the fibre's electrical conductivity improvement and for the electro-active shape memory effect. At 6.0 wt% MWNT content, the prepared shape memory fibre shape recovery ratio was 75% and the fixing ratio was 77%.