A strengthening approach for damping property and shape memory property of acrylic rubber/polylactide blends

In this work, a damping material was successfully prepared by blending acrylic rubber (ACM) and polylactide (PLA) with sulfur and soap salt as the curing agents. A phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resin was used as a modifier. The effects of PF on the mechanical properties, damping properties, compatibility and shape memory properties of the blends were studied. The compatibility and damping properties were characterized by dynamic mechanical analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscope and microstructure analysis. The shape memory properties were examined by thermal mechanical analyser. The results revealed that the tensile strength of the blends was decreased and the toughness was increased with the increase of PF loadings. The introduction of PF improved the compatibility between PLA and ACM, which was deduced from the fact that the glass transition temperature of ACM was increased and the two loss factor peaks became closer. It was also found that the loss factor peak became higher and the effective damping temperature range became wider due to the formation of hydrogen bonding, implying that the damping properties of ACM/PLA blends were significantly improved. The ACM/PLA blends exhibited good dual-shape memory effect and its shape recovery ratio was increased by introduction of PF and raising the trigger temperature. The blends also exhibited good triple-shape memory property, which was dramatically improved by the introduction of PF. The mechanisms for the enhanced shape memory effects were then analysed.