Nucleating Agents to Enhance Poly(l-Lactide) Fiber Crystallization during Industrial-Scale Melt Spinning

Stefan Siebert, Johannes Berghaus*, Gunnar Seide

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The nucleating agent N,N'-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-terephthalamide (BHET) has promising effects on poly(l-lactide) (PLA) under quiescent conditions and for injection molding applications, but its suitability for industrial-scale fiber melt spinning is unclear. We therefore determined the effects of 1% and 2% (w/w) BHET on the crystallinity, tenacity, and elongation at break of PLA fibers compared to pure PLA and PLA plus talc as a reference nucleating agent. Fibers were spun at take-up velocities of 800, 1400 and 2000 m/min and at drawing at ratios of 1.1-4.0, reaching a final winding speed of 3600 m/min. The fibers were analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry, wide-angle X-ray diffraction, gel permeation chromatography and tensile testing. Statistical analysis of variance was used to determine the combined effects of the spin-line parameters on the material properties. We found that the fiber draw ratio and take-up velocity were the most important factors affecting tenacity and elongation, but the addition of BHET reduced the mechanical performance of the fibers. The self-organizing properties of BHET were not expressed due to the rapid quenching of the fibers, leading to the formation of α'-crystals. Understanding the behavior of BHET in the PLA matrix provides information on the performance of nucleation agents during high-speed processing that will allow processing improvements in the future.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1395
Number of pages15
JournalPolymers
Volume14
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Mar 2022

Keywords

  • AID
  • BEHAVIOR
  • BHET
  • COMPOUND
  • LACTIDE
  • MECHANICAL PERFORMANCE
  • MORPHOLOGY
  • ORIENTATION
  • PLA
  • PLA melt spinning
  • POLY(LACTIC ACID)
  • POLYLACTIDE
  • crystallization
  • nucleating agents

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