Structure and properties of crystalline polymer fibers

Abstract

Most polymer fibers studied by TEM have been semi-crystalline or more recently liquid crystalline, both because the majority of technically interesting fibers are ordered and because scientific interest lies in the polymer morphology. The obvious common feature of fibers is that they are "fibrous" that is to say, they have long and narrow features aligned along the fiber direction. The basic unit obtained by a very local deformation of a crystal is called a micro-fibri l . [1,2] Fibrils may or may not be clear in the TEM, either because the structure itself is not well defined or because of superposition of several small fibrils within the sample.The large plastic deformation in fiber drawing will make any heterogeneity in the material appear fibrous. While zone drawing gels of poly(vinyl alcohol) recently we obtained porous fibers when residual ethylene glycol solvent boiled at just below the draw temperature.