In situ synchrotron SAXS/WAXD studies during melt spinning of modified carbon nanofiber and isotactic polypropylene nanocomposite

The structural development of a nanocomposite, containing 95 wt% isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and 5 wt% modified carbon nanofiber (MCNF), during fiber spinning was investigated by in situ synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) techniques. The modification of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) was accomplished by a chemical surface treatment using in situ polymerization of olefin segments to enhance its compatibility with iPP, where the iPP/MCNF nanocomposite was prepared by twostep blending to ensure the dispersion of MCNF. X-ray results showed that at low spin-draw ratios, the iPP/MCNF nanocomposite fiber exhibited much higher iPP crystalline orientation than the control iPP fiber. At higher spin-draw ratios, the crystalline orientation of the nanocomposite fiber and that of the pure iPP fiber was about the same. The crystallinity of the composite fiber was higher than that of the control iPP fiber, indicating the nucleating effect of the modified carbon nanofibers. The nanocomposite fiber also showed larger long periods at low spin-draw ratios. Measurements of mechanical properties indicated that the nanocomposite fiber with 5 wt% MCNF had much higher tensile strength, modulus and longer elongation to break. The mechanical enhancement can be attributed to the dispersion of MCNF in the matrix, which was confirmed by SEM results.