Two-Way Shape Memory Behavior of Electrospun Non-Woven Mats Prepared from Sol-Gel Crosslinked Poly(ε-Caprolactone)
2016 ◽
Vol 97
◽
pp. 100-105
◽
Non-woven fibrous mats based on semicrystalline networks were prepared starting from poly(ε-caprolactone) and by combining electrospinning process and sol-gel crosslinking reaction. The mats were subjected to proper thermo-mechanical cycles to investigate their two-way shape memory capabilities (i.e. the possibility to change between two distinguished shapes upon heating and cooling), and an improvement of the two-way behaviour was researched through the application of a training cycle. An ex-situ SEM analysis described the microstructural evolution accompanying the two-way shape memory cyclic response.