Hydrolytic degradation and functional stability of a segmented shape memory poly(ester urethane)

In order to understand the effects of water and hydrolytic ageing on semi-crystalline poly(ester urethane) and its shape memory functionality, water immersion experiments at elevated temperature have been performed on a model substance and various parameters were monitored: change of the melting/crystallisation temperatures, substantial increase in crystallinity, temperature dependence of the water diffusion coefficient and solubility, hydrogen-bonding index and phase mixing by peak deconvolution of the FT-IR carbonyl region and day-to-day tensile and thermo-mechanical cyclic tensile tests. A rising fraction of freezable water agglomerates in the polymer was found for specimens cooled from the immersion temperature. The degradation process could be divided into three phases: an induction phase, a phase of continuous degradation and a phase of accelerated degradation. Shape recovery remains fairly constant during phase one and decreases slowly during phase two. The increase in crystallinity in phase two is accompanied by an increase in shape fixing ability.