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Developing an ecologically friendly isothermal bath to obtain a new class high-tenacity and high-modulus polypropylene fibers

  • Polymer Fibers
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Abstract

A number of production methods have been developed for high-performance fibers; however, most processes use toxic solvents or generate a lot of unwanted by-products. Our research resulted in the development of a new family of high-performance polypropylene (PP) fibers by utilizing a simple, ecologically friendly bath (ECOB). Various commodity polymers can be used with ECOB melt spinning system at high throughputs and performance benefits. Our treated as-spun PP fibers had a highly oriented, but not crystalline precursor morphology with f a up to 0.6 generating superior mechanical properties. After drawing at draw ratios of 1.49 at 120 °C, highly oriented crystalline and amorphous phases were achieved for the drawn fibers with f c and f a values of 0.95 and 0.87, respectively. This fine structure for ECOB-treated fibers resulted in tenacity close to 12 g/d, initial modulus higher than 150 g/d, and ultimate elongation at break of 20 %. The polymer melting point of the new fibrillar PP fibers increased by 9 °C.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Birgit Andersen of the College of Textiles, at NCSU for helping us with X-ray and thermal measurements. ATEX Inc. supported this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Textiles, Textile Engineering Chemistry and Science Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695-8301, USA

    H. Avci, R. Kotek & J. Yoon

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  1. H. Avci
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  2. R. Kotek
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  3. J. Yoon
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Correspondence to R. Kotek.

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Avci, H., Kotek, R. & Yoon, J. Developing an ecologically friendly isothermal bath to obtain a new class high-tenacity and high-modulus polypropylene fibers. J Mater Sci 48, 7791–7804 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-013-7427-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-013-7427-1

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