The influence of chitin nanocrystals on structural evolution of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene/chitin nanocrystal fibers in hot-drawing process

• DOI: 10.1007/s10118-016-1843-z
• Publication Date: 2016-09-27T13:13:43Z
• Authors: Min-fang An; Hao-jun Xu; You Lv; Li Zhang; Qun Gu; Feng Tian; Zong-bao Wang
• Keywords: 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)/chitin nanocrystal (CNC) fibers were prepared. Compared with the pure UHMWPE fibers, the ultimate tensile strength and Young's modulus of UHMWPE/CNC fibers are improved by 15.7% and 49.6%, respectively, with the addition of chitin nanocrystals (CNCs) of 1 wt%. The melting temperature (Tm) of UHMWPE/CNC fibers was higher than that of pure UHMWPE fibers. Pure UHMWPE fibers and UHMWPE/CNC fibers were characterized with respect to crystallinity, orientation and kebab structure by wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It is found that the CNCs act as the shish structure in UHMWPE/CNC fibers and the kebab crystals are grown around the CNCs. There was almost no difference between pure UHMWPE fibers and UHMWPE/CNC fibers in orientation. But the degree of crystallinity of various stages of UHMWPE/CNC fibers was respectively higher than the corresponding stage of pure UHMWPE fibers. Moreover, the addition of 1 wt% CNCs improved the thickness of kebab crystals and accelerated the transformation of kebab to shish.