Study on poly(ε-caprolactone)-based shape memory copolymer fiber prepared by bulk polymerization and melt spinning

In this paper, a poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL)-based shape memory polyurethane fiber was prepared by melt spinning. The shape memory switching temperature was the melting transition temperature of the soft segment phase mainly composed of PCL at 47 degrees C. The mechanical properties especially shape memory effect were explicitly characterized by thermomechanical cyclic tensile testing. The results suggest that the prepared fiber has shape memory effects. The prepared 40 denier shape memory fiber had a tenacity of about 1.0 cN/dtex, and strain at break 562-660%. The shape fixity ratio reached 84% and the recovery ratio reached 95% under drawing at high temperature and thermal recovery testing.(1) Finally, the fiber thermal/mechanical properties were measured using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.