Fabrication of shape memory natural rubber using palmitic acid

This paper investigates the practicability of fabricating a shape memory natural rubber with the use of palmitic acid as the swelling agent. strips of natural rubber samples were swollen in molten palmitic acid at 75 °c. equilibrium swelling of natural rubber with palmitic acid was found to occur at approximately 50 min of swelling time. under cooling effect,the palmitic acid crystallized to form a percolated crystalline platelet network. these networks allow fabricated shape memory natural rubber (smnr) to deform and recover its shape at a temperature above the melting point of palmitic acid. under controlled uniaxial stress,the natural rubber sample with 0 parts per hundred rubber (phr) carbon black loading exhibits fixity and recovery of 80 ± 10%. motivation of this research is primarily on practicability of palmitic acid to be used as a swelling agent for shape memory properties. results show that palmitic acid is a relatively good swelling agent to induce shape memory properties into natural rubber. © 2017 the authors