Production and characterization of polyethylene/organoclay oriented fiber

The aim of this work was to study the influence of drawing process on the mechanical properties of polyethylene/clay fibers. To this extent, three different PE/clay blends (3, 5 and 10 wt.%) were prepared by melt compounding in a twin-screw extruder. The investigated clay was a commercial organically modified montmorillonite (Dellite 67G). After compounding fibers were produced by a single-screw extruder and drawn at different draw ratios. At increasing draw ratio an increase of elastic modulus and tensile strength was attained. The presence of clay layers increases fibers ductility hindering fibrils formation during the drawing process. Moreover, at increasing clay contents a decrease of tensile strength for high draw ratios was observed. These results demonstrated that the dispersed clay layers can be re-aggregated by the uniaxial flow induced by the drawing process resulting in a decay of mechanical properties at high draw ratios.