Stacked-Lamellar Structure in High-Speed Spun PET Fibers as Revealed by TEM

Abstract

Morphological study of high-speed spun poly(ethylene terephthalate) (HSS-PET) fibers spun at 6 km/min was performed by a combination of alkaline etching, surface replica method, and transmission electron microscopy. In the two-stage replica of the alkalineetched fiber, the stacked-lamella-like structure was observed, in which lamella-like striations were stacked in a direction leaning at about 40 • away from the fiber axis. The spacing between the adjacent striations, namely the lamellar periodicity, was measured to be 10-30 nm. We have proposed that the stacked-lamellar structure, which is mainly composed of mosaic lamellar crystals and has the extended-chain crystals connecting the adjacently stacked lamellae, is an appropriate model for the fiber structure of HSS-PET fibers.