Effects of solar UV irradiation on the tensile properties and structure of PPTA fiber

This paper comprehensively studied the effects of simulated solar ultraviolet irradiation on the mechanical and structural properties of the Twaron2000 para-aramid fiber by use of mechanical test, SEM, XRD, DSC, DMA and ATR-IR measurements. The results showed that after UV irradiation, the mechanical properties of the fiber were decreased obviously, and UV irradiation deteriorated the surface and defect areas of the fiber severely by photo-induced chain scission and end group oxidation in air with the crystalline structure remained almost unchanged although some local rearrangement of the crystalline area might occur. It was found that surface etching and shortening of the crystalline correlation length along the fiber axis were the main causes of the mechanical loss induced by UV irradiation.