New low‐temperature resistant shape memory elastomer: Ethylene‐octene copolymer/methyl vinyl silicone rubber composites

Abstract

A new series of thermoplastic elastomers were fabricated in this study employing ethylene‐octene copolymer (POE) and methyl vinyl silicone rubber (MVQ) as the thermoplastic phase and the elastomeric phase, respectively. The effect of POE/MVQ blending ratios on the vulcanization, mechanical, and thermal properties, cold resistance, shape memory properties, and hydrophobicity of the thermoplastic composites was investigated. Moreover, specific properties such as low‐temperature impact (LTI), shape memory and hydrophobicity properties exhibited by the POE/MVQ thermoplastic composites were studied in detail. The results indicated that the POE/MVQ composites exhibited remarkable mechanical properties and LTI strength. With the MVQ content reaching 10 phr, their tensile strength reached 30.07 MPa, significantly higher than that of pure POE. Regarding shape memory properties, the shape fixing ratio and the shape recovery ratio were 97.6% and 94.3%, respectively, at the MVQ content of 40 phr.