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Isotactic polypropylene microfiber prepared by carbon dioxide laser‐heating
Author(s) -
Suzuki Akihiro,
Narusue Shinichi
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.20091
Subject(s) - microfiber , materials science , composite material , spinning , crystallite , polypropylene , laser , tacticity , fiber , fabrication , tension (geology) , optics , polymer , polymerization , ultimate tensile strength , medicine , physics , alternative medicine , pathology , metallurgy
Abstract An isotactic polypropylene (i‐PP) microfiber was obtained by irradiating a carbon dioxide laser to previously drawn fibers. To prepare the thinner i‐PP microfiber, it is necessary to previously draw original i‐PP fibers under an applied tension of 7.8 MPa at a drawing temperature of 140°C. The drawn fiber was heated under an applied tension of 0.3 MPa using the laser operated at a power density of 39.6 W cm −2 . The thinnest i‐PP microfiber obtained under optimum conditions had a diameter of 1.8 μm and a birefringence of 30 × 10 −3 . Its draw ratio estimated from the diameter reached 51,630. It is so far impossible to achieve such a high draw ratio by any drawing. The wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction photograph of the microfiber shows the existence of the oriented crystallites. Laser‐heating allows easier fabrication of microfibers compared with the conventional technology such as the conjugate spinning. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 1534–1539, 2004