Electrospinning preparation of perylene-bisimide-functionalized graphene/polylactic acid shape-memory films with excellent mechanical and thermal properties

Developing polylactic acid (PLA) shape-memory films with excellent mechanical and thermal properties is essential for applying PLA in the shape-memory materials field. In this study, a series of perylene-bisimide-functionalized graphene nanosheet (PBI–GN)/PLA shape-memory films were successfully prepared by electrospinning. The effects of PBI–GNs on the mechanical, thermal, and shape-memory properties of the PLA nanofiber films were systematically studied. Results showed that with a 9 wt% content of PBI–GNs, the thermal stability of the composite film significantly improved, and the tensile strength and elongation at break increased by 346% and 11.1%, respectively, compared with those of the neat PLA nanofiber film. Moreover, at this percentage of PBI–GNs, the composite film exhibited the maximum shape recovery of 92.3%, which was 36.3% higher than that of the neat film. After five thermomechanical test cycles, the ratio decreased by only 3.7%.