Study on the attapulgite modified PVA fibers

The attapulgite nano-whisker modified PVA fiber has been prepared by wet spinning. The structure and properties of the modified PVA fibers have been characterized by SEM, DSC, and mechanical test. It has been found that the attapulgite modified fibers show much higher tensile strength, initial modulus and work-to-break than that of pure PVA fibers in the same draw ratio. This indicates that the mechanical properties of PVA fibers can be much improved by attapulgite. The observations of SEM show that the attapulgite nano-whiskers can align orderly along the fiber axis by stretching and the attapulgite nano-whiskers have good adhesion to the fiber matrix. DSC analyses show that the crystallinity of the PVA fiber can be increased by adding attapulgite.