Strong and Tough Polyamide‐6 Fiber Achieved Through Incorporation of Woven Cross‐Links

ABSTRACT Polyamide‐6 (PA6) fibers that are produced using traditional approaches still suffer from the compromise between tensile strength and toughness. Despite woven cross‐linking might enhance the mechanical property of PA6, the scalable production of macroscopic woven cross‐linked fiber materials remains challenging and largely unexplored, as the processability of woven cross‐linked polymers is significantly hindered by their infusibility and insolubility caused by cross‐linking. Herein, we present the melt spinning production of woven cross‐linked PA6 fibers using an aminolysis strategy. Because of the formation of a molecularly woven cross‐linked structure, the PA6 fiber exhibited a high tensile strength of 636.7 ± 43.1 MPa and an impressive toughness of 94.5 ± 18.1 MJ/m ³ , which are superior to those of 543.1 ± 44.0 MPa and 74.5 ± 10.7 MJ/m ³ for the neat PA6 fiber, respectively. Notably, the tensile strength of the woven cross‐linked PA6 surpasses that of previously reported PA6 fibers. Further experimental results provided valuable insights into how hot‐drawing‐indued structural evolution contributed to the enhancement of mechanical properties of the fiber. Our research establishes an efficient strategy for enhancing the mechanical properties of industrial polymer fibers by integrating molecularly woven cross‐links.