Polyolefin fibers refer to synthetic fibers composed of linear macromolecules polymerized from olefins. As a fiber solutions provider, Alfa Chemistry offers polyolefin fibers to meet your fiber material requirements.
Chemical Components
Polyolefin fibers are synthetic fibers made from at least 85 wt% polyolefin. These polyolefin raw materials mainly include polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), which are two main types for polyolefin fibers. Other polyolefin fibers which have been explored include poly(1-butene), Poly(methyl-1-butene), and poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) fibers. The monomers and equivalent repeat units of several developed polymers for polyolefin fibers are summarized below.
| Polymer | Alkene monomer | Polyolefin repeat unit |
|---|
| Poly(ethylene) | CH2═CH2 | [— CH2CH2 —] |
| Poly(propylene) | CH2═CH (—CH3) | [—CH2CH (—CH3) —] |
| Poly(4-methylpent-1-ene) |  |  |
| Poly(1-butene) |  |  |
| Poly(methyl-1-butene) |  |  |
| Poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) |  |  |
| Poly(3-methyl-1-butene) |  |  |
In addition, fibers can be prepared from copolymeric polyolefins, such as ethene propene, ethene octene and even ethene propene butene copolymers. It has been reported that random copolymers of propylene and 0.8 wt% ethylene can produce fibers suitable for the manufacture of spun bonded nonwoven fabrics. [1]
Structure
Ethylene, CH2=CH2, is perfectly symmetrical about the double bond, so the unbranched polyethylene polymer chain backbone should be perfectly symmetrical. The generally accepted chemical structure of PE is a long saturated carbon chain of methylene (-CH2-) groups. In practice, varying degrees of long or short chain branching can and does occur, thus giving rise to low density PE (LDPE) and high density PE (HDPE).
Unlike ethylene, the propylene molecule CH2=CH(-CH2) is asymmetric, so theoretically three possible geometries can be given during dimerization, which include head to tail addition, head to head addition, and tail to tail addition. Since each repeat unit in the PP chain has a chiral or asymmetric tertiary carbon C*, the stereochemical structures of PP are divided into isotactic, syndiotactic and atactic. [2]
Properties
Polyolefin fiber is a kind of light-weight fiber with high strength, good wear resistance, excellent resilience, strong hydrophobicity (moisture regain is only 0.1%), strong resistance to sunlight, weather resistance and excellent wicking effect (when the fiber fineness reaches a certain level).
Polyolefins generally exhibit good chemical resistance. They are resistant to chemical attack by alkalis, inorganic acids and most organic liquids. However, polyolefins are prone to oxidation, which causes polyolefin fibers to swell or even dissolve with certain organic liquids, especially at high temperatures.
Applications
Polyolefin fibers have long provided good cost-effectiveness in the textile field, mostly used in consumer products such as carpets, sanitary nonwovens, filter cloths and ropes.
In addition, many researches have also explored the effect of polyolefin fibers as reinforcements on the properties of concrete. For example, Alejandro Enfedaque et al. investigated the effect of the orientation and distribution of polyolefin fibers on the fracture behavior of concrete. [3]
References
- Sartori F, et al. US Patent, US 2006057374, 16 March 2006; 2006.
- Crangle. Polyolefin Fibres (Second Edition), 2017, 3-32.
- Alejandro Enfedaque, et al. Materials, 2019, 12(2), 220.
Our products and services are for research use only.
