Fiber structure development in PS/PET sea-island conjugated fiber during continuous laser drawing

摘要

The effect of draw ratio, molecular weight, and sea-island conjugated spinning with a polystyrene component on the fiber structure development of PET during laser drawing was analyzed by in-situ measurements with a 0.1 ms time resolution using an ultra-high luminance X-ray beam generated from a synchrotron equipped with an undulator. The fiber temperature increased from 120 degrees C to 160-220 degrees C during the structure development process. By drawing the higher molecular weight PET to a higher draw ratio, a larger amount of fibrillar smectic mesophase formed just after the onset of necking, and a more highly oriented crystal formed after the extinction of the smectic mesophase. Accordingly, fibers with higher strength and higher thermal shrinkage stress were obtained. On the other hand, by conjugated spinning with a PS component, the fiber temperature increased along with an increase in the drawing stress, but the stress applied to the PET component should have decreased. The amount of smectic mesophase formed by the conjugated-spinning process was drastically decreased, and no crystallization induction time was observed, unlike the other cases. Crystallization, particularly the growth of a lamellar crystal, was also promoted. Moreover, a higher Young's modulus, a higher yield stress, and a higher shrinkage stress were observed for the conjugated-spun and drawn fibers. Therefore, the fibrillar smectic mesophase seems to block the formation of the lamellar crystal. Furthermore, the resultant fibrillar structure tends to result in a higher strength, but a relatively lower modulus and yield strength of the fiber. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.