Structure development and properties of high-speed melt spun poly(butylene terephthalate)/poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) bicomponent fibers

Ultra-high-speed bicomponent spinning of poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) as sheath and biodegradable poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) as core was accomplished with the take-up velocity up to 10 km/min. The structure development of the individual component and the properties of PBT/PBAT fibers were investigated through the measurements on differential scanning calorimetry, wide-angle X-ray diffraction, birefringence and tensile test. Due to the mutual interaction between two polymer-melts along the spinline, the processability of both components in PBT/PBAT bicomponent spinning was improved compared with those of corresponding single component spinnings. Furthermore, in PBT/PBAT fibers, the structure development of PBT component was found to be greatly enhanced, which led to the improvement in its thermal and mechanical properties; whereas the structure development of PBAT component was significantly suppressed, in which nearly non-oriented structure was observed in both crystalline and amorphous phases.