Drawing And Ultimate Tensile Properties Of Polyamide 6/Attapulgite Composite Fibers

The influence of the silane coupling agent (KH-792) modified attapulgite (ATP) contents on the drawing and ultimate tensile properties of Polyamide 6 (PA6)/ATP composite fiber specimens prepared at varying drawing temperature were systematically investigated. As evidenced by fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis of the purified and modified ATP specimens, the silane coupling agent was successfully grafted to ATP nanofibers through the reaction of CH3-OH and Si-OH groups of the hydrolyzed silane coupling agent and Si-OH groups present on the surfaces of purified ATP nanofibers. Typical fibrous structure was observed for the purified ATP specimen, in which the length and thickness of the ATP nanofiber are around 500 and 20 nm, respectively. After surface modification, some translucent resins were found attaching firmly on the surface of the modified ATP specimens. As evidenced by rheological properties and DSC analysis, the melt shear viscosity (ηs) and percentage crystallinity (Wc) values of PA6x(ATP)y resins increase significantly as their modified ATP contents increase. At any fixed drawing temperature, the achievable draw ratio (Dra) values of PA6x(ATP)y as-spun fiber specimens increase initially with the increase in modified ATP contents, and then approach a maximum value, as their modified ATP contents are close to the 0.2 wt% optimum value. The maximum Dra values obtained for PA6x (ATP)y as-spun fiber specimens prepared at the optimum modified ATP content reach another maximum as their drawing temperatures approach the optimum drawing temperature at 120％. Similar to those found for their achievable drawing properties, the orientation factor (fo) and tenacity values of PA6x(ATP)y fiber specimens approach a maximum value, as their modified ATP contents and drawing temperatures approach the 0.2 wt%and 120％optimum values, respectively. Investigations including TEM, FTIR, rheological properties, DSC, orientation factors, drawing and tensile properties experiments were performed on PA6x(ATP)y resins and/or fiber specimens to clarify the interesting rheological, thermal, orientation, tensile and ultimate tenacity properties found for the PA6x(ATP)y resins and/or fiber specimens prepared in this study.