Structural Control of Polyamide 6/Clay Nanocomposite Fibers by In-Line Drawing Process

High-speed melt spinning and in-line drawing of polyamide 6/clay hybrid (NCH) nanocomposite was carried out and the structure as well as the tensile properties of obtained fibers were investigated. In comparison with neat polyamide 6 (PA6) drawn at 50°C and 120°C, the NCH fibers drawn at 170°C showed higher crystallinity reaching 60% and higher content of a crystalline form. For both neat and hybrid fibers very high tenacity of 1 GPa was attained whereas the modulus was 15% higher for NCH filaments and reached 9.5 GPa. Since the molecular orientation was lower in NCH than in PA 6 filaments, the involvement of both crystalline structures and rigid clay particles in the stress transmission behavior was suggested as the reason for excellent tensile properties of nanocomposite fibers.