Abstract

As basic raw materials for textiles and nonwovens, the research on novel fiber forms has always been the basis of novel and functional fibrous materials. The asymmetric side-by-side bicomponent fiber can use two kinds of polymeric materials to generate functional fiber forms and properties which lead to better mechanical or dielectric properties neither of its components possesses. However, the recycling of bicomponent fibers can be difficult due to the difficulties in separating the components. In this work, a side-by-side bicomponent fiber was afforded with one simple polymeric material of polypropylene (PP) and its homologues (PP+), which would be more applicable for recycling due to their same chemical nature. This work reports on how the processing parameters were optimized to affect high degrees of self-crimping. When the ratio of PP+ with high melt flow rate (MFR) was increased from 50% to 80%, the crimp rate of the as-prepared PP/PP+ fiber was improved from 42.3% to 66.3%. The stretching was the other factor to strongly affect the crimp rate, and under high drafting air pressure of 45 psi, the fibers showed highly regular helical forms and higher degrees of elongation at break (over 500%). This novel self-crimp PP fiber can be used in various hygienic and medical applications in woven and nonwoven textiles.

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