Most of high-performance textiles combine different types of polymers and other organic materials, which are often impossible to separate at the end of the textile life-cycle. Well-known examples of multifunctional polymeric blends are combinations of high-tenacity fibers and elastomeric fibers, such as e.g., polyester-spandex or nylon-spandex yarns used in stretchy athletic apparel. To address this problem, we engineer properties of polyethylene (PE) yarns via tuning chemical architecture and intermolecular interactions in the material. New fibers and yarns exhibit strong resistance to environmental degradation, mechanical properties spanning the range from the values typical for single-network elastomers (such as spandex) to high-performance fibers (such as nylon) as well as mechanical recyclability. X-ray scattering techniques confirmed that by controlling PE crystallinity and alignment of crystalline domains we can widely tune structural disorder in PE fibers, which exhibit crystallinity values from ~8% to ~56%. This variation of fiber’s molecular structure also translates into a wide range of specific stiffness values (up to 20 MPa/(kg/m<sup>3</sup>)) and specific strength values (up to 2 MPa/(kg/m<sup>3</sup>)). Remarkably, new PE yarns outperform commercial hybrid complex yarns in terms of both tensile strength and elastic recovery (above 90%). Our results illustrate that PE yarns can find applications in passive cooling textile technologies, pressure-control medical textiles, and soft robotics and are 100% mechanically recyclable at the end of their lifecycle.

High-performance polyethylene-based elastic yarns for circular sustainable textiles

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ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.