Spinnability of Dilute Polymer Solutions

Abstract

Experiments carried out on a series of seven different polymers with molecular weights varying over a wide range have allowed us to confirm that stable jets can be obtained at concentrations much below the crossover point. A jet was considered as stable if its lifetime exceeds the Plateau–Rayleigh time by several orders of magnitude. The systematic study carried out for poly(ethylene oxide) solutions in a wide range of high molecular weight showed that the lowest concentration at which a stable fiber can still be formed is scaled by [η]−2.14±0.3 or M–1.63±0.29. However, for the domain of not so high M, the spinnability concentration corresponds to the onset of entanglements and scales as M–0.70±0.14, which is the same as the dependence of the crossover concentration on molecular weight. The difference in the scaling exponents reflects two possible regimes of stable fiber formation in fiber spinning. These exponents are close to those obtained by Palangetic et al. [Polymer 2014, 55, 4920] for other polymer...