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Fiber spinning behavior of a 3‐hydroxybutyrate/3‐hydroxyhexanoate copolymer
Author(s) -
Bond Eric Bryan
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.200350703
Subject(s) - copolymer , materials science , melt spinning , spinning , fiber , ultimate tensile strength , polylactic acid , polypropylene , composite material , polyethylene , elongation , synthetic fiber , crystallization , core (optical fiber) , polymer chemistry , polymer , chemical engineering , engineering
The fiber spinning behavior of a poly(3‐hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA) copolymer resin containing 11.3 mol% hexanoate copolymer (H11) was studied to determine its usefulness in fiber based applications, such as nonwovens. Monocomponent fibers were spun initially, but it was found they would not solidify in the spinline. Bicomponent (sheath/core) fibers were melt spun using a H11 core and a polylactic acid (PLA), as well as a polyethylene succinate (PES) sheath. The spinning results showed that H11 levels up to 30wt% could be incorporated with stable spinning. The incorporation of H11 was found to be limited due to the slow crystallization kinetics of the H11 in the spinline. The neat and bicomoponent fibers were found to have tensile strengths similar to polypropylene. The PES based fiber compositions were found to have elongation‐at‐break values similar to PP. Neat H11 copolymer fibers were found to be readily biodegradable at 25°C under aerobic conditions.