Programming of Temperature-Memory Onsets in a Semicrystalline
Polyurethane Elastomer
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Abstract
We demonstrate that phase-segregated
poly(ester urethane) (PEU)
with crystallizable switching segments of poly(1,4-butylene adipate)
(PBA) excels as high-performance temperature-memory polymer. Temperature-memory
effects (TMEs) with regard to strain and stress recovering could be
programmed by polymer elongation at temperatures below or within the
PBA melting transition, followed by cooling under constant stress
below the PBA crystallization transition and unloading. Beyond that
conventional approach, a novel TME programming route was designed,
mostly consisting in specimen elongation and unloading at the same
temperature. As a result, an enhanced control over the onsets of strain
and stress recovering could be achieved. With these findings, the
TME could be exploited to switch quick response (QR) codes in recently
developed information carriers from unreadable to readable. We conjecture
that such behavior can be programmed into virtually all semicrystalline
elastomers and anticipate applicability as label technology to monitor
temperature abuse of food and pharmaceuticals