“Grafting to” as a Novel and Simple Approach for Triple-Shape Memory Polymers

Maleated-polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene-co-butylene)-b-polystyrene (m-SEBS) is a block copolymer with two melting temperatures belonging to soft poly(ethylene-co-butylene) (EB) and hard polystyrene (PS) segments. As EB segments contain anhydride reactive groups, this allows grafting polybutylene succinate (PBS) as another soft segment to m-SEBS backbone to obtain triple-shape memory polymers based on two transition temperatures, i.e., Tm values of EB (at 55-65 °C) and PBS (at 105-115 °C). The present work shows a novel and simple approach of "grafting to" to develop triple-shape memory polymers.