All chemicals were purchased from Sigma Aldrich and used without modification or cleaning, unless otherwise stated. N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis(2-hydroxypropyl)ethylenediamine (HPED, 99%), triethanolamine (TEA, 98%, Alfa Aesar), and
2,2,4-trimethyl hexamethylene diisocyanate (TMHDI, TCI America, a mixture of 2,2,4 and 2,4,4 monomers) were used as monomers.
Ethyl isocyanate (98%, Sigma) was used for confirming urethane syntheformation. Fluorescent monomers, shown in
Figure 1, PhB (99%), Eos (99%), IcG (95%), and Cal (99%) (Chem-Impex Int’l Inc.) were identified as having functional groups that react with isocyanate groups similarly to alcohol groups, and were added without modification. All reactive monomers are shown in
Figure 1. The additives
barium sulphate (BaSO
4, particle size of 3 μm, 99%),
zirconium oxide (ZrO
2, particle size of 5 μm, 99%), and tungsten (W, particle size > 1 μm, 99.95%, Alfa Aesar) were used without modification.
Weems A., Raymond J., Easley A., Wierzbicki M., Gustafson T., Monroe M, & Maitland D. (2017). Shape memory polymers with visible and near-infrared imaging modalities: Synthesis, characterization and in vitro analysis. RSC advances, 7(32), 19742-19753.