Abstract:

In order to study the spinnability and processing performance of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) modified with novel multifunctional clay material (QE powder), PET/QE blends were prepared by blending modification. Rheology and thermal properties as well as its fiber morphology of the blends were characterized by capillary rheometer, thermo-gravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscope, respectively. The results indicate that the appearance of QE powder degrades PET, and  dramatically weakens the flow resistance and non-Newtonian behavior of the blends melt. With the shear rate 900 s-1 considered, the blend with 1% QE powder shows 253% and 295% decrease on shear viscosity and shear stress values, respectively when compared with pure PET, and non-Newtonian index increases by 19.4%. The thermal degradation test and TG analysis show that QE powder has little effect on the thermal degradation property of PET, and only the initial thermal decomposition temperature of PET decreases by 3 ℃ when QE powder mass fraction is added to 2%. Moreover, core spinning method was used to prepare the modified fiber, the surface of which contains a large amount of OE powder, and dents exist on the partial region of the fiber surface.

Key words: polyethylene terphthatate, QE powder, blending modification, rheological property, thermal stability