Hydrodynamically induced crystallization of polymers from solution. V. Tensile properties of fibrillar polyethylene crystals

Processing and Characterization of UV Irradiated HDPE/POSS Fibers

High-performance polyethylene fibers, renowned for their superior attributes encompassing a high strength, modulus, and lightness, are conventionally manufactured through the gel spinning method. However, this method is encumbered by several drawbacks, including the requisite application of a separate process to eliminate solvents from the fibers and the utilization of chemicals deleterious to both the environment and human health. Alternatively, the adoption of the melt spinning method presents a cleaner and environmentally friendly approach to attain high-performance fibers. In the present investigation, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) fibers were produced employing the melt spinning method. After the spinning process, strategic orientation procedures were implemented to enhance the crystallinity of the spun fibers. As a concluding step, seeking to elevate the overall performance of the oriented spun HDPE fibers, a cross-linking treatment was applied via UV irradiation. Notably, this study pioneers the incorporation of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) hybrid nanoparticles into HDPE during melt spinning, presenting a novel advancement aimed at further enhancing the mechanical properties of oriented HDPE fibers during UV irradiation. For this purpose, two distinct types of POSS, namely octavinyl POSS (OVPOSS) and methacryl POSS (MACPOSS), both having unsaturated double bonds capable of participating in the network structure of oriented HDPE spun during UV cross-linking, were used. The thermal, morphological, and mechanical properties, as well as the crystal structure of samples with and without POSS molecules, were investigated. The mechanical properties of the fibers exhibited higher values in the presence of OVPOSS. The incorporation of OVPOSS and MACPOSS resulted in a noteworthy improvement in the material's tensile strength, exhibiting a marked increase of 12.5 and 70.8%, respectively. This improvement can be attributed to the more homogeneous dispersion of OVPOSS in HDPE, actively participating in the three-dimensional network structure. After orientation and UV irradiation, the tensile strength of HDPE fibers incorporating OVPOSS increased to 293 MPa, accompanied by a concurrent increase in the modulus to 2.8 GPa. The addition of POSS nanoparticles thus yielded a substantial improvement in the overall performance of HDPE fibers.

Structure Evolution and Deformation Behavior of Polyethylene Film during Biaxial Stretching

The structure evolution and deformation behavior of tenter-frame biaxially oriented polyethylene (TF-BOPE) films were investigated in this study. For sequential biaxial stretching, the original spherulites were broken into small pieces, and the fibrillar structure simultaneously formed during the machine direction (MD) stretching. Subsequently, the single fibrils were pulled away, and some fine fibrils developed via partial melting-recrystallization or lamellar rearrangement during the transverse direction (TD) stretching, which leads to the formation of the vein structure and nanosized fiber-like network. For simultaneous biaxial stretching, the fractured lamellae and the newly formed crystals were evenly distributed in the MD-TD plane like an isotropous fibrillar network. Moreover, compared with the unstretched sample, both films could achieve up to about 2 times the tensile modulus and 4.5 times the tensile strength and also exhibited the superior optical property.

Extrusion polymerization: catalyzed synthesis of crystalline linear polyethylene nanofibers within a mesoporous silica

Crystalline nanofibers of linear polyethylene with an ultrahigh molecular weight (6,200,000) and a diameter of 30 to 50 nanometers were formed by the polymerization of ethylene with mesoporous silica fiber-supported titanocene, with methylalumoxane as a cocatalyst. Small-angle x-ray scattering analysis indicated that the polyethylene fibers consist predominantly of extended-chain crystals. This observation indicates a potential utility of the honeycomb-like porous framework as an extruder for nanofabrication of polymeric materials.