Prof. Tao XIE's Group

 Our group has published a paper named ‘High strain epoxy shape memory polymer’ in Polymer Chemistry (Polym. Chem., 2015, 6, 3046–3053). Epoxy polymers represent a recently emerged class of thermoset shape memory polymers with superior thermo-mechanical endurance and excellent processability. However, the strains at break are typically low for epoxy shape memory polymers. We report a two component epoxy-amine shape memory polymer system with tunable T_g (between 40 °C and 80 °C) and excellent shape memory properties and cycling stability. Importantly, its values of strain at break above T_g and at the T_g peak reach 111% (the maximum value was 43% reported before) and 212% (the maximum value was 90%~95% reported before), respectively. We anticipate that such a high strain epoxy system will significantly broaden the opportunities for shape memory device applications.