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• Smart polymers for textile applications
• Smart polymer nonwovens with nanofibers

Compared with microfibres, nonwovens with nanofibres were developed in smart polymer textiles such as shape memory polymer nonwovens, PCM nonwovens and colour change nonwovens. SMP electrospun micro- and nanofibre nonwoven structures have unique properties including quicker response to the external stimuli, larger recovery stress, quicker recovery rate and enhanced functionalities such as antibacterial and water vapour permeability.

Nanofibres have been successfully electrospun from SMPU solutions by different people. The structures had ultrafine diameters in a range of 50 nm to 2 μm. Uniform nanofibres can be prepared by adjusting applied voltage, concentration and feeding rate. In particular, the concentration plays a key role in controlling its diameters. The cyclic tensile test proves that the resulting nanofibres have good SME: 98% shape recovery and 80% shape fixity can be obtained after several cycles.

The thermal properties of SMPU nanofibrous nonwovens were studied by Zhuo et al. and were found to be influenced greatly by the electrospinning and recrystalline conditions. Temperature-strain recovery curves indicate that the SMPU nanofibre tends to have a lower recovery temperature compared with the SMPU bulk film due to their ultrafine diameter. It would be advantageous if material properties could be improved by the construction of microstructures to enhance the shape recovery speed of SMPs without changing the chemical composite. For this purpose, Yang et al. reported their work on electrospun micro- to nano-fibre nonwoven films with the diameter of 200 nm to 1 μm. In comparison with the bulk SMPU film, micro-fibre film has much quicker and sharper shape recovery when heated in water, and the final shape recovery ratio (Rr) and shape fix ratio (Rf) of the microfibre film were also enhanced. DSC and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) results indicated that the formation of microfibre has a very limited effect on the switching temperature. The quick shape recovery of the microfibre film is due to the higher surface area of microfibre film which is beneficial for quicker heating/cooling of the sample and quicker diffusion of water. This study offers a possible way to improve the shape recovery speed without changing the chemical composition.

Ozin and co-workers reported another interesting work. The electroactuation of polymer microfibres were spun from an ethoxysilane derivative of redox active polyferrocenylmethylvinylsilane (PFMVS), and then acid-catalysed condensation of ethoxysilane was performed to get cross-link. In cases of low cross-link density, resultant fibres rapidly respond (< 100 ms) to electrical stimuli and large strains occur within 10 ms when fibres are oxidized electrochemically on an electrode surface submerged in a supporting electrolyte.