Processing and Thermal Response Properties of Temperature Sensitive Gel/Polymer Composites

Abstract

Many kinds of temperature sensitive gels (TSG) were developed currently. TSG were used in various fields such as medical, industrial and daily life. TSG having a lower transfer temperature at around 60〜100 deg. C. were desired in order to expand their further applications and due to the reason of energy saving at the time of softening. In this study, we prepared TSG having a lower transfer temperature, which became more toughness than that of existing TSG because the side crystalline chains were introduced into the polymer structure. The developed TSG also were compounded to polymer composites with different filler composition. In order to clarify mechanical and thermal properties of developed TSG/polymer composites films, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), thermal mechanical analysis (TMA) and tensile mechanical testing were performed. These results showed that the transfer temperature of TSG was at around 60 deg. C. The form reversibility of these composite films depended on the transfer temperature to a certain degree. Modulus of TSG composites films was significantly improved by almost 3 times as compared to that of matrix polymer, and the elongation at break of TSG composites film was also increased as compared to that of TSG.