Preparation and mechanical properties of poly(p-phenylene sulfide) nanofiber sheets obtained by CO2 laser supersonic multi-drawing

Abstract

Abstract In this study, poly(p-phenylene sulfide) (PPS) nanofiber sheets were fabricated by winding PPS nanofibers onto a spool. Previously, PPS nanofibers have been prepared by irradiating a PPS fiber with a CO2 laser while drawing it at supersonic speeds by single-fiber injection through an orifice. Here, we incorporated the nanofibers obtained into large nanofiber sheets and determined their mechanical properties. Supersonic air was introduced into a vacuum chamber through eight fiber injection orifices to obtain large PPS nanofiber sheets. The nanofibers were collected for 10 min, producing a rectangle sheet with dimensions of 17 cm×18 cm, a thickness of 70 μm, and an average fiber diameter of 700 nm. The dependence of the sheet’s mechanical properties on winding speed was investigated in the machine direction (MD) and traverse direction (TD) at four winding speeds.