Ultradrawing properties of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylenes/functionalized activated nanocarbon as-prepared fibers

Abstract

The improvement of the ultradrawing and ultimate tensile properties of high performance fibers is the most critical and challenging for applications of high performance fibers, such as ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers. This paper aims to improve the ultradrawing and ultimate tensile properties of UHMWPE fibers by incorporating very small amounts of nanofillers during the gel spinning process of UHMWPE fibers. Activated nanocarbon (ANC), acid treated activated nanocarbon (ATANC) and functionalized activated nanocarbon (FANC) prepared by grafting maleic anhydride polyethylene onto ATANC, were added into the UHMWPE fibers as effective nucleation nanofillers with specific surface areas higher than 1000 m² g⁻¹. This is the first work where ANC, ATANC and FANC were used as reinforced or functional additives in UHMWPE composite fibers to enhance their ultradrawing and/or ultimate tensile properties. The experimental results show that the maximum achievable draw ratio obtained for the best prepared UHMWPE/FANC fiber reaches 398 and the ultimate tensile strength (σ_f) of the best prepared UHMWPE/FANC drawn fiber reaches around 7.8 GPa, when the mass fraction of FANC is 0.075 phr. They are the highest draw ratios and σ_f values obtained so far for UHMWPE/nanofiller composite fibers reported in the literature.