Shape memory hybrid based on polyvinyl alcohol and 0D silver nanoparticles

Abstract

Shape memory hybrids (SMH) have drawn significant attention because they allow an easy alternative for the design of shape memory materials with tailored properties or features. In this work, a shape memory hybrid was made, based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as the elastic domain and 0D silver nanoparticles (Agnps) as the transition domain, a dissolution method of mixing both components, and evaporation of water afterward allowed the formation of films of the hybrid material. Two different size distributions of silver nanoparticles were used (13.7 � 2.6 and 67.9 � 14.1 nm), in order to study the effect of the size on the shape memory effect (SME) of the final SMH, under temperature stimuli. The materials obtained were characterized using scanning electron mi- croscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy (IR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermog- ravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques. The crystallinity of PVA was slightly altered with the addition of Agnps. Finally, the shape memory effect was tested on both hybrid materials, resulting in a better response to tem- perature for the SMH prepared with Agnps of 68 nm, also the shape recovery time can be tuned varying both the increase of temperature and the size distribution of Agnps used