JOURNAL OF MATERIALS SCIENCE, cilt.48, sa.22, ss.7791-7804, 2013 (SCI-Expanded)
A number of production methods have been developed for high-performance fibers; however, most processes use toxic solvents or generate a lot of unwanted by-products. Our research resulted in the development of a new family of high-performance polypropylene (PP) fibers by utilizing a simple, ecologically friendly bath (ECOB). Various commodity polymers can be used with ECOB melt spinning system at high throughputs and performance benefits. Our treated as-spun PP fibers had a highly oriented, but not crystalline precursor morphology with f (a) up to 0.6 generating superior mechanical properties. After drawing at draw ratios of 1.49 at 120 A degrees C, highly oriented crystalline and amorphous phases were achieved for the drawn fibers with f (c) and f (a) values of 0.95 and 0.87, respectively. This fine structure for ECOB-treated fibers resulted in tenacity close to 12 g/d, initial modulus higher than 150 g/d, and ultimate elongation at break of 20 %. The polymer melting point of the new fibrillar PP fibers increased by 9 A degrees C.