Kevlar

Kevlar is widely-used as a friction material in the automotive industry and a com-

bustion protection material in the aerospace industry.

From: The Laser Cutting Process, 2018

Related terms:

Carbon Fiber, Dupont, Glass Fibre, Nomex, Polyamides, Tensile Strength, Aramid,
Aramid Fibre

View all Topics

Composite materials
Zeaid Hasan, in Tooling for Composite Aerospace Structures, 2020

5.2.2 Kevlar
Kevlar is DuPonts name for aramid fibers. Aramid fibers are light weight, strong, and
tough. Two types of aramid fiber are used in the aviation industry. Kevlar 49 which
has a high stiffness and Kevlar 29 which has a low stiffness. An advantage of aramid
fibers is their high resistance to impact damage, so they are often used in areas
prone to impact. The main disadvantage of aramid fibers is their general weakness in
compression and hygroscopy. Service reports have indicated that some parts made
from Kevlar absorb up to 8% of their weight in water. Therefore, parts made from
aramid fibers need to be protected from the environment. Another disadvantage is
that Kevlar is difficult to drill and cut. The fibers fuzz easily, and special scissors are
needed to cut the material. Kevlar is often used for military ballistic and body armor
applications. It has a natural yellow color and is available as dry fabric and prepreg
material. Bundles of aramid fibers are not sized by the number of fibers like carbon
or fiberglass but by weight.

> Read full chapter

Nondestructive testing method for
Kevlar and natural fiber and their hy-
brid composites
Siti Madiha Muhammad Amir, ... Ain Umaira Md Shah, in Durability and Life
Prediction in Biocomposites, Fibre-Reinforced Composites and Hybrid Composites,
2019

16.4.2 NDT for Kevlar (synthetic fiber) and its hybrid compos-
ites
Kevlar is a type of aramid fiber. It is woven into textile materials and is extremely
strong and lightweight, with resistance toward corrosion and heat. It is used in vast
applications such as aerospace engineering (such as the body of the aircraft), body
armor, bulletproof vests, car brakes, and boats. It is usually made into composites.
Kevlar can also be combined with other fibers to produce hybrid composites. The
hybrid composites of Kevlar are tabulated in Table 16.1.

Since Kevlar is used in many structural applications, NDT plays an important role
in determining the integrity of the structure. One of the methods used to inspect
the integrity of structures made from Kevlar is CT. CT is commonly used in the
inspection of metals. However, this method is now being used for composites.
Fidan [72] utilized microcomputerized tomography to visualize the internal damage
impact on glass fiber–reinforced and glass fiber + aramid fiber–reinforced polyester
composites. Low-velocity impacts were tested at 80 J energy. From the investigation,
the micro-CT showed that the 3D-delamination pattern defect in glass-reinforced
composites is more visible due to the nature of the glass fiber. However, the
delamination pattern lost its effectiveness when aramid fiber was added to the glass
fiber.

Another method used to detect defects is the eddy current method [73]. However, in
the work of Grimberg and Savin [73], the eddy current method used is for composites
made from synthetic fiber, which are carbon and Kevlar. Eddy current microscopy,
involving a micro-focus transducer, was used to investigate the individual fiber
breakage in the specimen after it was impacted by a 7.62-mm-caliber bullet.

Woo et al. [74] investigated the failure process and characteristics of carbon/Kevlar
hybrid woven composites under a high strain-rate impact. In this work, a destruc-
tive-nondestructive coupled impact test methodology was applied. The AE technique
was used as the nondestructive method in this work. The parameters of AE signal
cumulative counts and amplitude were interpreted to obtain results for the plastic
deformation and fibrillation of fibers, matrix cracking and propagation, and fiber
breakages. The AE technique can also be used to provide valuable information on the
structural changes in a stressed material. Juroslav et al. [75] applied the AE technique
on a tensile test on composite materials reinforced with carbon and aramid fibers.
The AE results provide information on the separation of the matrix, the extraction
of fiber from the matrix, and the breaking of the fibers. The root mean square is
observed in this work.

Maleki [76] introduced the liquid crystal thermography method for the inspection of
delaminations and air bubbles in a hybrid of Kevlar/resin as the skin and glass/resin
as the core. According to the literature [76], this method can be applied to detect de-
lamination. However, there are limitations in the preparation procedure, and access
to both sides during the inspection is required. Further work was also suggested
concerning the detection of small cracks using this method.

Destic et al. [77] conducted NDT using the THz imaging setup on Kevlar fibers. Even
though the samples tested were not real cases, since they had very thin damage,
the results seemed to be very promising. From the output, using the setup, the
delamination defect in Kevlar can be detected, and a break in a carbon/epoxy sample
was also detected.

> Read full chapter

Some applications of laser cutting

Bekir Sami Yilbas, in The Laser Cutting Process, 2018

5.5.5 Laser cutting of Kevlar

Kevlar has unique properties, such as high tensile strength, high toughness, and
chemical stability at high temperatures in aromatic polyamides. Kevlar is widely-used
as a friction material in the automotive industry and a combustion protection
material in the aerospace industry. The net shaping of Kevlar laminates is difficult
using the conventional machine tools due to whiskers forming and loose fibers
around the machine edges. In addition, the specific energy required for machining
is higher than most of the engineering materials. Moreover, laser machining offers
considerable advantages over the conventional techniques. Some of these advan-
tages include a high-quality end product, precision of operation, and low cost. Laser
cutting eliminates the whiskers emanating from the machined edges due to thermal
effect. Although unwoven Kevlar laminates are easy to bend, the development of
resolidified regions at the kerf edges and the formation of a heat-affected zone in the
cut section increases brittleness of laser machined Kevlar laminates in this region.
This, in turn, limits the practical application of the machined laminates.
The results obtained from laser cutting experiments associated with Kevlar cutting
are presented below in light of the previous study [9].

Fig. 5.61 shows the variation of kerf width size with laser power intensity for different
assisting gas pressures. It should be noted that the kerf width size is predicted
from Eq. (3.231) in Chapter 3 and data used in the simulations are given in Table
5.5. Nitrogen was used as the assisting gas. The kerf width size increased with
increasing laser power intensity, which appears to be more pronounced at high
power intensities. In this case, increasing the laser power intensity enhances the
rate of material removal from the kerf and causes small oxidation reactions to take
place in the kerf, due to the air trapped in the voids. This enhances the sideways
burning. The laminate consists of layers, as shown in Fig. 5.62A, in which air is
trapped during the manufacturing of the laminate. During the cutting process, air
is freed, which results in oxidation reactions in this region. Because the amount of
oxidation reactions is small, enlargement of the kerf width size is not substantial as
observed for metals. The influence of the assisting gas pressure on the kerf size is
evident. The assisting gas enhances the mass removal rate from the kerf sites as well
as preventing oxidation reactions. The cooling effect of assisting gas is expected to
reduce the kerf width size slightly. However, enhancing a mass removal rate at high
assisting gas pressure diminishes the cooling effect of the assisting gas, which in
turn, increases the kerf width size with increasing assisting gas pressure. Some small
discrepancies between the experimental findings and the theoretical predictions
are attributed to the thermal properties of the laminate; that is, in the analysis an
averaged thermal conductivity is considered while in actual experimental situations,
thermal conductivity depends on the fiber orientation and spacing. Consequently,
nonuniform thermal conductivity results in some small variation in the kerf width
size. Moreover, heat-affected zones around the cutting edges are not observed
clearly. In this case, plain wave fibers are terminated thermally at the cutting edges by
a laser beam (Fig. 5.62B). In addition, due to the low thermal conductivity of Kevlar,
the heat diffusion into the fibers is small at the cutting edges. This, in turn, lowers
the heat-affected zone size unlike in the case of fiber reenforced plastics.
Fig. 5.61. Kerf width predicted and measured from the experiment for different
power intensities as assisting gas pressure being variable [9].

Table 5.5. Kevlar and assisting gas properties used in the simulations

Source of variation Value Units

Density of assisting gas 2.786 kg/m3
Density of workpiece 1340 kg/m3
Fraction of evaporation contri- 0.1 –
bution ( )

Fraction of pressure drop (f) 0.5 –

Energy coupling factor (A) 0.6 –

Super heating factor in the melt 0.01 –

front ( u)

Heat of reaction 26.92 × 103 J/kg

Molecular diameter of nitrogen 0.3176 Å
Assisting gas pressure (P) 150–500 kPa

Specific heat capacity of work- 1400 J/kg K

piece
Superheating factor 0.02 –
Thermal conductivity of work- 0.14 W/m K
piece
Combustion temperature 2800 K

Fig. 5.62. (A) A cross-section of laminate used in the cutting experiments [9]. (B) Laser
cut edges of laminate and thermally terminated fiber tips at the cutting edge (laser
power = 1800 W and P = 500 kPa) [9].

Fig. 5.63 shows the surface roughness profile for two different assisting gas pres-
sures. The average surface roughness is on the order of 25 μm for assisting gas
pressure of 200 kPa, while it is on the order of 17 μm for a 500 kPa assisting gas
pressure. It can be observed that surface roughness reduces for high assisting gas
pressure; in which case, the sideways burning due to oxidation reactions becomes
minimum due to the shielding effect of the assisting gas at high pressure. Fig. 5.64
shows the ratio of the kerf width obtained from using the experimental data. The
kerf width ratio is determined from the ratio of the difference in the kerf width size
along the cut edges to the average kerf width size along the same cut edges. The
influence of assisting gas pressure is significant on the kerf width ratio while the
laser output power influences the kerf width ratio slightly. In this case, increasing
the assisting gas pressure lowers the kerf width ratio while alternatively increasing
the laser output power enhances the kerf width ratio slightly. This suggests that
the sideways burning due to air trapped in the layers is a significant contributor
to the kerf width size. High assisting gas pressure enhances the rate of material
removal from the kerf and suppresses the oxidation reaction taking place in the
cutting section via reducing the oxygen concentration in air. In this case, nitrogen
acts as a shielding gas in the cutting section, suppressing the oxidation reactions
in this region. This, in turn, results in improved cut quality. This improvement is
significant at high assisting gas pressures (500 kPa).

Fig. 5.63. Surface profiles of the laser cut edges [9].

Fig. 5.64. Kerf width ratio with different gas pressure for laser output power of 1500
and 1800 W [9].

Fig. 5.65 shows the ratio of out-of-flatness, obtained from using the experimental
data, with assisting gas pressure for laser output power intensities of 1500 and
1800 W. It should be noted that the data presented in Fig. 5.65 is a nondimensional
form (it is the ratio of out-of-flatness differences over the average value of the
out of flatness). The out-of-flatness ratio decreases significantly with increasing
assisting gas pressure for all power intensities. This is because nitrogen prevents
high-temperature oxidation reactions in the cut region. Although nitrogen prevents
oxidation reactions, which take place at high temperatures in the cutting section,
air, which is trapped in the laminate, is released during the cutting process and
causes local sideways burning. Despite the fact that the sideways burning is local,
it reduces the cut quality via enhancing the out-of-flatness ratio. Consequently,
nitrogen at high pressures prevents the sideways burning partially in the kerf. This,
in turn, improves the end product quality. The out-of-flatness ratio increases with
increasing laser output power, provided that the change in the out-of-flatness is
smaller as compared to the assisting gas pressure variation. This may be attributed
to the shielding effect of the assisting gas, which influences the out-of-flatness ratio
while suppressing the oxidation reactions during the cutting process.

Fig. 5.65. Out-of-flatness ratio with gas pressure for power intensities of 1500 and
1800 W [9].

Fig. 5.66 shows SEM micrographs of laser cut sections for three assisting gas
pressures. Parallel side-cut edges are evident from the micrographs. In the case of
high assisting gas pressure, the out-of-flatness ratio is considerably low at the cut
edges. This can be explained in terms of air being trapped in the laminate structure.
Air is released during the cutting and it mixes with the assisting gas, nitrogen.
However, this mixing does not result in a significantly low concentration of oxygen
in the air at low assisting gas pressures. Consequently, the releasing of air at high
temperatures causes exothermic reactions within the substrate material leading to
the sideways burning while enhancing the out-of-flatness ratio in the cut section.
The thermal damage on the workpiece surface is more pronounced for the workpiece
having fiber axis in the cutting direction. However, the workpiece with a fiber axis in
the plane normal to the workpiece motion is less damaged due to low-bulk thermal
conductivity.
Fig. 5.66. SEM micrographs of the top view of cut sections for three different assist-
ing gas pressure. The laser output power is 1500 W. The scale bar in micrographs is
in micrometers [9].

> Read full chapter

Developments in rope structures and

technology
J.W.S. Hearle, in Specialist Yarn and Fabric Structures, 2011

3.8.4 Two unusual uses

A Kevlar rope was suspended between 8500- and 6000-foot mountain tops, which
were thee miles apart in the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. This was the
longest span in the world. It was used as a rail to support a target, with a plan for the
target to run at speeds up to 1000 mph. This is used to test ground-to-air missiles.

At the other extreme, ropes are used in farming mussels. With the right choice of
rope, mussels will attach themselves to the rope, which can be hauled up when the
mussels are ready to be harvested.

> Read full chapter

Technical textiles for knife and slash

resistance
K.K. Govarthanam, ... S. Rajendran, in Handbook of Technical Textiles (Second
Edition), 2016

7.4.3.3 Slash resistant personal protective equipment garment

Apart from the Kevlar yarn, the best resistance to slash was recorded by using Spectra
WF408 yarn, but this was replaced by three ends of WF528 yarn, which reduced the
linear density of the yarn used by 30% while maintaining the same breaking force.
This in turn reduced the area density of the knitted fabric by 250 gm–2, thus making
it lighter and potentially more comfortable to wear.

The slash resistant fabrics that passed the standard were officially named as SARK.
The first fabric was named as SARK-1, and the subsequent fabrics as SARK-2 and
SARK-3. The novel two-layer structure, named SARK-1, which passed the HOSDB
Slash Resistance Standard for the UK Police on both the faces, was a knitted fabric
with two ends of Kevlar yarn as the racked face and three ends of WF528 yarn as the
other face. The results for this fabric are shown in Table 7.9.

Table 7.9. HOSDB slash resistance test results for SARK-1

Slash test direction Failure force on Kevlar face (N) Failure force on WF 528 face (N)
Walewise  71.64  65.81
Coursewise 293.77 122.17
Crosswise 109.74  61.61
Average force 158.38  83.20

HOSDB = Home Office Scientific Development Branch.

The results reveal that a minimum failure force of 71.64 N and an average failure
force of 158.38 N were achieved. The average force of 158.38 N was almost twice the
minimum average required to pass the test. The SARK-1 fabric also passed the slash
resistance standard with the WF528 yarn as the test face. It passed with a force of
65.81 N in the walewise direction, 122.17 N in the coursewise direction and 61.61 N
in the crosswise direction. The high resistance to slash of 122.17 N in the coursewise
direction enabled the fabric to obtain the required average of 80 N and above.

Modifications were made to the SARK-1 structure to achieve a special racked struc-
ture in one of the faces, results of which are shown in Table 7.10.

Table 7.10. HOSDB slash resistant test results for SARK-2

Slash test direction Force (N) Force (N)

Walewise 92.49 115.78
Coursewise 84.25 144.41
Crosswise 97.68 64.89
Average force 91.47 108.36

HOSDB = Home Office Scientific Development Branch.

The novel two-layer racked structure SARK-2 passed the standard on both faces of
the fabric with an average value of 91.47 N on the Kevlar yarn face and 108.36 N
on the WF528 yarn face. SARK-2 achieved similar slash performance in all three
directions. This indicates that the structure is more or less isotropic with regard to
this property. Fig. 7.34 shows some of the products produced by using the patented
SARK slash resistant fabric.76

Fig. 7.34. Products produced by using SARK technology.

> Read full chapter

Mechanical Behaviour of Composites

R.J. Crawford BSc, PhD, DSc, FEng, FIMechE, FIM, in Plastics Engineering (Third
Edition), 1998
Example 3.19
A single ply Kevlar 49/epoxy composite has the following properties.

If the fibres are aligned at 15° to the x-direction, calculate what tensile value of x will
cause failure according to (i) the Maximum Stress Criterion (ii) the Maximum Strain
Criterion and (iii) the Tsai-Hill Criterion. The thickness of the composite is 1 mm.

> Read full chapter

Textile Fibers: A Comparative Overview

J.W.S. Hearle, in Encyclopedia of Materials: Science and Technology, 2001

6.2 Para-aramid Fibers

The aramid fiber Kevlar, polyphenylene terephthalamide (PPTA), was the first suc-
cessful HM-HT polymer fiber. It is a para-aramid, with benzene rings from dibasic
acid and diamine joined along the chain in 1,4 positions. The chemical formula is

7.

The polymer cannot be melted, but degrades chemically at around 500°C. To be

spun, it is dissolved in concentrated sulfuric acid and extruded into an alkali bath.
The fiber, as first produced, is highly crystalline and highly, but not perfectly,
oriented. The structure consists of pleated sheets, which are slightly off-axis. This
structure causes the stress–strain curve to be concave upward, and results in some
creep under low loads. Further heat treatments under tension increase orientation
and give higher modulus forms. Other techniques can reduce modulus, as needed
in some applications.

Covalent bonds give the high axial properties, including a tensile strength around
3GPa, but intermolecular forces are weak. Hydrogen bonding between -CONH-
groups occurs only in one plane. Tensile rupture results from axial splits, which run
across the fiber, giving long fibrillar forms. The shear modulus is low. Axial yield
occurs at about 0·4 GPa. Although the low compressive strength is a disadvantage
in many ways, it has the advantage that the fibers are not brittle in bending. Yielding
on the inside of a bend allows fibers to bend back on themselves through 180°
without breaking.Kink bands can be seen internally with polarized light microscopy
and externally with electron microscopy. Although a few repetitions of sharp bending
do not cause major damage, a few thousand cycles will cause breakage by flexural
fatigue. This is seen as axial compression fatigue when component yarns in ropes are
allowed to go into compression. The nature of the tensile break and the compressive
yielding lead to high-energy absorption in structural impacts.

Technora is a copolymer aramid fiber in which half the p-phenylene diamine is

substituted by 4,4 -diaminodiphenyl ether. Its properties are similar to PPTA fibers,
but with differences which may be advantageous in some applications.

It was hoped that para-aramid fibers would find a large market in tire cords.
However, apart from the high price, they are stronger than is needed for the general
market. Going from cotton to rayon to nylon and polyester, it was possible to reduce
the amount of cord needed as strength was increased. However, there is a limit to
the sparseness of cords within the tire, so that advantage could not be taken of the
added strength of aramids. Their use depends on applications where high strength
and high stiffness justify a high price. This includes: heavy-duty tires; light, strong
ropes and industrial fabrics; ballistic impact resistance; and advanced composites.

> Read full chapter

Hardware—off-vessel components
Kai-Tung Ma, ... Yongyan Wu, in Mooring System Engineering for Offshore Struc-
tures, 2019

9.5.3 Aramid rope

Aramid (used in Kevlar and Twaron brands) rope has strength and stiffness compa-
rable to steel wire rope. It is only occasionally used for offshore moorings, because
it has a failure mode of axial compression fatigue, which can cause the rope to fail
if fibers are subjected to compression. The first attempt to use large aramid fiber
rope in a deepwater mooring system was in 1983 [9]. These aramid ropes were break
tested to verify their strength. The aramid mooring lines were preset several months
before a barge arrived in a manner that allowed them to become slack and rotate.
This action caused axial compression fatigue in and near the bottom splices, which
reduced the rope strength. When the barge was finally moored and the lines were
tensioned to set the anchors, several of the aramid ropes failed. Prior to that incident,
there was little understanding of axial compression fatigue. Note however that the
axial compression can be avoided or minimized by good rope design, by maintaining
a tension in the rope that does not allow fibers to see compression, and by using
good termination techniques.

> Read full chapter

Materials design for robotic platforms

enabling unique mechanisms of projec-
tile protection
Pingwei Liu, ... Michael S. Strano, in Robotic Systems and Autonomous Platforms,
2019

20.2.1 Multiply fabric composite

The polymer fibers like Kevlar, Spectra, PBO Zylon and M5 Goal fibers have very
high stiffness, very low strains to failure (< 4%), and low density. For example
[1], 200 denier Kevlar 29 has the Young's modulus (Ey) = 91 GPa, max = 2.95%,
 = 1440 kg/m3, Spectra 1000 has Ey = 120 GPa, max = 3.5%, and  = 970 kg/m3.
They are essentially elastic in tension and can be assumed as linearly elastic [11]. We
found,

(20.3)

where v1 is the impact velocity of the projectile, max is the failure strain of the fiber,
Ey is the fiber/yarn's modulus, y is the volume fraction of the fiber (or yarn) in the
fabric composite, c is the composite density, c is the longitudinal wave (, y is the
density of the fiber or yarn), U is the transverse wave speed in laboratory coordinates
after impact [12], and 1 is the initial strain of the 1D fiber/yarn at the moment of
the projectile impact with v1.

(20.4)

(20.5)

The preceding equations determine the required size and thickness of the multiply
fabric composite based on polymer fibers with given Ey, y, max, y.

In particular, we used the composite fabric membrane based on M5 Goal fiber for the
design of AA. M5 Goal fiber has the highest ballistic performance ([Fcy]1/3 = 1043 m/s
[13]) among various polymer fibers. Its fabric composite [13] consists of 88 vol%
fiber/resin tapes (ply areal density = 98 g/m2) and 12 vol% thermoplastic resin
(  ≈ 1.0 g/m3) approximately ( y = 0.88) has a density around 1.0 g/m3. Assuming a
standardized 16 grain (Mp = 1 g) flat-nosed, cylindrical (RCC) steel projectile with
Dp = 0.55 cm and hp = 0.55 cm [2, 11] was used and v1 is 800 m/s, according
to Eq. (20.3), j 0,max is 1288 and j 0,min is 7.35. The fabric membrane will dissipate
> 98% of the kinetic energy from the projectile through deformation and the air drag
force has little contribution. 0,max of the fabric composite membrane determined
by Phoenix and Porwal's model [2] is 0.035 at y = 0.88. Based on the calculation,
we designed M5 fiber-based composite membrane with y = 0.88, 0 = 0.035, and
208.8 ≤ j ≤ 36,608 for AA, and we plotted vc(x)against j and x − x2 at Stage III in Fig.
20.3 (v1 = 800 m/s). We found that, at j ≥ 208.8, the composite with the embedded
projectile decelerates to a low speed of 3 m/s at a distance < 2.6 m.

Fig. 20.3. The contour plot of vc(x) (3–95.8 m/s) against the x − x2 and j when M5 Goal
fiber-based composite membrane ( 0 = 0.035, f = 0.88) was used as the AA.

> Read full chapter

Polymer Characterization
Masaki Tsuji, in Comprehensive Polymer Science and Supplements, 1989

34.5.3.1 Poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA)298

After annealing PPTA (Kevlar) at 400 °C, fibrillar fragments were obtained at room
temperature by tearing. Figure 40(b) is a dark field image of PPTA taken with a 006
reflection. It shows a texture of alternating bright and dark bands with a period
of about 500 nm. A similar texture is reported in longitudinal thin sections314
and in fibrillar fragments.13 Careful inspection of the figure shows that there exist
microfibrils running in the direction of the fiber axis and through these bands.
Although Takahashi et al.315 have observed a line of bright spots in a bright band
of the 006 dark field image, this is not recognizable in Figure 40(b)

Figure 40. A PPTA fiber annealed at 400 °C: (a) the ED pattern; (b) the 006 dark field
image; and (c) the 110 and 200 dark field image of the same specimen portion as (b)

Figure 40(c) is a dark field image taken with 110 and 200 reflections of the same
specimen portion that was used in Figure 40(b). This figure reveals that small crys-
tallites (bright spots in the figure) are randomly dispersed throughout the fibrillar
ribbon. Moreover, bright spots seem to be placed in a row in a certain region of the
ribbon. A high resolution lattice image of the PPTA fiber is shown in Figure 41. Clear
110 lattice fringes can be seen. The area where lattice fringes appeared is of the order
of 10 nm × 10 nm through to 20 nm × 20 nm, and is almost of the same order as the
area of a bright spot in Figure 40(c). In the case of poly(p-phenylene benzobisthiazole)
(PBT) fiber, such an area is slightly larger than that of PPTA and 20 nm wide by
40 nm long in the fiber axis.316 This suggests the reason why a PBT fiber has a greater
modulus than a PPTA fiber. The direction of the 110 fringes in Figure 41, that is the
c-axis of each crystallite, fluctuates slightly relative to the fiber axis in the plane of the
figure. Even curved fringes can sometimes be seen.13, 298 Examples of curved fringes
are easily recognized by inspection of the region indicated by the arrow in Figure 41
Figure 41. A high resolution image of a PPTA fiber. Inset is the optical diffractogram
(OD) of the image

Since PPTA is made of rigid macromolecules, it is not supposed to have the

two-phase structure prevailing in flexible macromolecules such as PE, but has a
microfibrillar texture which is similar to the model of bundling of parallel microfibrils
proposed by Peterlin.317 Recently a SAXS with long wavelength X-rays which showed
equatorial discrete maxima was reported.318 The curved 110 fringes in the lattice
images and the results of dark field imaging with a 006 reflection or 110 and 200
reflections suggested that the microfibrils are distorted by bending and/or twisting.
The 006 dark field image of PPTA (Figure 40b) reveals that individual microfibrils
in a fibrillar ribbon have the texture of periodic bending, and as a consequence the
ribbon possesses a pleated sheet texture.314 The 110 and 200 dark field imaging,
however, reveals the existence of twisting of microfibrils in the same ribbon (Figure
40c). Therefore, it should be concluded that a microfibril in a PPTA fiber is bent
along its fiber axis with a rather large periodicity (about 500 nm), and it is also
twisted randomly around the axis. The Ag2S insertion technique is also useful for
morphological observations of the PPTA fiber.269
 In the case of PBT, dark field images and lattice images showed that the crystallite
size increases from several nm in width (equatorial direction) to 10–20 nm and in
length (meridional direction) to 40 nm by annealing.316 In lattice images, lattice
fringes of 0.59 nm corresponding to the equatorial reflection were straight, but ones
of 1.24 nm corresponding to the meridional reflection were wavy. It was deduced
that this phenomenon is due to the paracrystalline nature of PBT.319 In the diffraction
pattern of PBT, many meridional and a few equatorial reflection are recognized,
but the hkl ones are faint.320, 321 Thus crystal structure analysis of this polymer is
difficult. Recently determination of the idealized crystal structure of PBT has been
attempted based on its high resolution images.322 Morphologies of polymers with
rigid molecular chains including PPTA were reviewed by Takahashi.321

> Read full chapter

ScienceDirect is Elsevier’s leading information solution for researchers.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. or its licensors or contributors. ScienceDirect ® is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V. Terms and conditions apply.