Characterization of hydrophilic polypropylene fiber

The hydrophilicity of polypropylene(PP) fiber was successfully modified by adding a small amount of hydrophilic additives.The thermal stability of the additives was characterized by thermal gravimetric analysis(TGA),and the hydrophilicity was studied by measuring the contact angle(CA) of melt-squashed modified PP chips or fibers,which were proved to be an effective method to select and evaluate the additives in PP fiber.In comparison with unmodified PP,the rheological behavior of modified PP chip and the mechanical property of the modified PP fiber were almost unchanged;the strength of the modified fiber is above(6.2 cN/dtex);the contact angle was reduced by 48°.The results from differential scanning calorimetry and scanning electron microscopy showed that the melt behavior and crystallinity of the modified PP fiber were similar to that of the unmodified one;the hydrophilic additives were distributed uniformly and stretched along the fiber axis;and the width of the domain is about(200 nm).