Effect of Nano-SiO 2 on Different Stages of UHMWPE/HDPE Fiber Preparation via Melt Spinning.

Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)/high-density polyethylene (HDPE) blend with lower viscosity is more suitable for melt spinning compared to pure UHMWPE; however, the mechanical property of the blend fiber is hard to dramatically improve (the maximum tensile strength of 998.27 MPa). Herein, different content modified-nano-SiO 2 is incorporated to UHMWPE/HDPE blend fiber. After adding 0.5 wt% nano-SiO 2 , the tensile strength and initial modulus of UHMWPE/HDPE/nano-SiO 2 fiber are increased to 1211 MPa and 12.81 GPa, respectively, 21.57% and 43.32% higher than that of UHMWPE/HDPE fiber. Meanwhile, the influence of the nano-SiO 2 content on the performance for as-spun filament and fiber are emphatically analyzed. The crystallinity and molecular chain orientation of as-spun filament reduces with the addition of nano-SiO 2 . On the contrary, for fiber, the addition of nano-SiO 2 promoted the crystallinity, molecular chain orientation and grain refinement more obvious at a lower content. Furthermore, the possible action mechanism of nano-SiO 2 in the as-spun filament extrusion and fiber hot drawing stage is explained.