Translaminar fracture toughness and first-cycle shape-memory recovery of Elium ® thermoplastic composites containing Ag/SiC-doped PAN nanofibers

Elium ® thermoplastic resin is attractive because of its low-viscosity processing and recycling potential, but its crack resistance and shape recovery remain limited. In this work, silver (Ag) and silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticles were incorporated into electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) mats before the mats were embedded in the Elium ® matrix. Neat PAN, Ag-doped PAN, SiC-doped PAN, and hybrid Ag/SiC-doped PAN mats were examined to compare the fracture, thermomechanical, and shape-memory responses of the resulting laminate panels. Scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDS) detected Ag and Si signals in the analyzed regions of the modified PAN mats, while X-ray diffraction (XRD) identified the crystalline Ag and SiC phases. The mean translaminar fracture toughness was 1.67 MPa·m 1/2 for the neat Elium ® panel and 1.92 MPa·m 1/2 for the PAN-reinforced Elium ® panel. Higher mean values were observed for the nanoparticle-modified panels, with hybrid Ag/SiC-doped PAN/Elium ® reaching 2.56 MPa·m 1/2 , approximately 53.29% higher than the value measured for neat Elium ® . The reinforced panels exhibited higher mean storage-modulus values than the neat Elium ® panel before the transition region, with comparatively high values observed for the SiC-containing panels. Among the panels investigated, Ag/SiC-doped PAN/Elium ® showed the highest mean first-cycle shape-recovery ratio, reaching approximately 98%. Within the laminate panels investigated, the Ag- and SiC-doped PAN nanofiber systems were associated with higher mean fracture toughness, storage modulus, and first-cycle shape recovery than neat Elium ® .