Open AccessPreparation and study of Polyvinyl Alcohol/Attapulgite nanocomposite fibers with high strength and high Young’s modulus by gel spinning
Author(s) -
Hu Xin,
Liming Zou,
Yongjian Xu,
Yan Vivian Li,
Junwei He
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
materials research express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.383
H-Index - 35
ISSN - 2053-1591
DOI - 10.1088/2053-1591/ab9855
Subject(s) - materials science , nanocomposite , crystallinity , polyvinyl alcohol , composite material , ultimate tensile strength , scanning electron microscope , differential scanning calorimetry , thermogravimetric analysis , thermal decomposition , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , environmental scanning electron microscope , young's modulus , chemical engineering , chemistry , organic chemistry , physics , engineering , thermodynamics
Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/Attapulgite (ATT) nanocomposite fibers with high strength and high Young’s modulus were prepared via gel spinning. The structures and properties of PVA/ATT nanocomposite fibers were investigated with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), x-ray diffraction (XRD), Environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM), and mechanical testing. The results showed that ATT had a great influence on the structures and properties of PVA/ATT nanocomposite fibers. The melting temperatures, crystallinities, initial decomposition temperatures and maximum decomposition temperatures of PVA/ATT nanocomposite fibers increased firstly when ATT content was increased from zero to 3 wt%, however, they were then dropped when ATT contents were 5 wt% and 7 wt%. The highest melting temperature, crystallinity, initial decomposition temperature and maximum decomposition temperature of PVA/ATT-3 were 240.4 °C, 67.6%, 266.7 °C and 358.6 °C, respectively. Furthermore, ESEM observation indicated that ATT had good adhesion to PVA matrix. Mechanical tests showed that PVA/ATT-3 had the highest breaking tensile and Young’s modulus of 12.6 cN/dtex and 301.9 cN/dtex, respectively.