Preparation and Properties of Opaque Polyethylene Terephthalate/TiO2 Filaments

Abstract

The opaque polyethylene terephthalate (PET) filaments with different mass fractions of TiO2 particles were prepared by low-speed melt spinning and drafting. Basic structures including surface morphology, linear density, orientation degree and crystallinity, and properties including tensile and optical property of the PET/TiO2 filaments were systematically analyzed, especially the visual shielding property. The results showed that TiO2 particles were well-distributed on the filament surface without obvious aggregation, except when the mass fraction of TiO2 exceeded 6%. The addition of TiO2 increased the linear density of the PET filaments. The orientation degree of the filaments was positively correlated with the drafting ratio but hardly influenced by the mass fraction of TiO2. The crystallinity achieved the maximum when the mass fraction of TiO2 was 3% and then decreased gradually. The tenacity of the filaments reduced and the elongation at break enhanced initially and then decreased with the increasing TiO2 content. The opaque effect of the PET filaments improved significantly when the mass fraction of TiO2 was less than 6%, whereas the improvement of the opaque effect slowed down as the mass fraction of TiO2 increased further.