This chapter discusses the chemistry of olefin monomers, their role in stereospecific addition polymerisation, the chain conformation or tacticity of resultant polymers and the influence of macromolecular structure on the physical characteristics of polyethylene, polypropylene and other alpha polyolefins, when used as textile materials. The characteristics of other polyolefin fibres produced from olefin copolymers or miscible blends and bicomponent filament structures are reported. Polyolefin textiles are classified in terms of their structure and chemical nomenclature, fibre processing technology or application of the textile material. The progressive commercial introduction of polyolefins fibres and textiles and future trends is reviewed.
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