Physical and Mechanical Properties of Nylon 6/ Titanium Dioxide Micro and Nano-Composite Multifilament Yarns

In this study, the effect of titanium dioxide particles (TiO ₂ micro and nano) on the physical and mechanical properties of Nylon 6–based multifilament yarns was investigated. For this reason, master-batches of Nylon 6/TiO ₂ micro and nano-particles were prepared by melt compounding before spinning and then multifilament composites incorporating 0.03, 0.33, 0.5 and 0.7% TiO ₂ micro and nano-particles were successfully spun in a melt-spinning machine. Characterization of these composite multifilament yarns was carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x-ray (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Characterization of mechanical strength properties including tenacity and elongation at break of the resultant composites are discussed as a function of filler loading. Through the application of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), it was found that incorporating micro titanium dioxide caused severe aggregation at the nylon fiber surface. By contrast, the diffusion of nano-particles within bulk of multifilament yarns was much more consistent, although aggregation of the titanium dioxide nano-particles still appeared. The results manifested the improvement of mechanical properties of the nano-composites containing TiO ₂ nano-particles.