Abstract
High modulus aramid fiber, such as Kevlar 49, is conventionally prepared by the heat annealing of high strength aramid fiber under a suitable tension at high temperature, especially higher than 500 °C. This enables the mobility of a rigid molecule chain to be rearranged into a more perfect crystalline or orientation structure under tension. However, annealing decreases the tensile strength, since the thermal degradation of the molecular chain at high temperature cannot be avoided. Kevlar 49 fibers treated in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) under tension could improve their mechanical properties at a low temperature. The effects of the tension on the mechanical properties and structure of the Kevlar 49 fibers were studied by mechanical testing, wide-angle and small-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS, SAXS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the mechanical properties, crystallinity and orientation of the fiber can be improved when the tension is less than 0.6 cN/dtex, which may be due to the increasing of the mobility of a rigid segment with the help of the plasticization of scCO2 and re-arrangement of macromolecular chain into crystalline and orientation structure under tension. What’s more, the amorphous region also was enhanced by crosslinking reaction of toluene 2,4-diisocyanate (TDI) with the chain end groups of the macromolecules in the amorphous regions. However, a decrease of tenacity was found when the tension was higher than 0.6 cN/dtex, which is because the tension was so high that the microfibril was broken. The results indicated that treating the Kevlar 49 fiber in scCO2 under a suitable tension with TDI as a crosslink agent can simultaneously improve both the tenacity and modulus of the fiber.
Highlights
Poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA) fiber, prepared from a liquid-crystal system in solution due to the rigidity of the molecular chains, has a highly oriented molecular structure and a high elastic modulus, tenacity, and thermal stability [1]
Structure andunder orientation is tensions studied by WAXS
The results suggest that at a high temperature and high pressure, tension would promote some strain-induced crystallization, which is responsible for the increased crystallinity and orientation
Summary
Poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA) fiber, prepared from a liquid-crystal system in solution due to the rigidity of the molecular chains, has a highly oriented molecular structure and a high elastic modulus, tenacity, and thermal stability [1]. Edmunds et al discussed the effects of the manufacturing process on the crystalline, macromolecular, and fibrillar structure for the skin and core [1,2,3]. Panar observed the radially oriented pleated structure which superimposed onto a supramolecular fibrillar structure, where the intact fiber consisted of a large number of fibrils [3]. The chain end was modeled by Morgan et al, where the chain ends in the skin are randomly arranged and become more bunched towards the core, resulting in periodic weak planes where the chain ends cluster [1,4,5]. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is a technique that is ideally
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