Nanotechnologies and chemical fibres

The features of nanotechnologies and possibility of applying them in research and industrial practice in the chemical fibres sector are examined. Structural elements 1–100 nm in size are the objects of nanotechnologies. The cross sections of fibrils and their crystalline sections (large periods) whose structure determines the mechanical and physical properties of the fibres fall in this range. In the initial stage, the chemical fibres were improved, especially with respect to increasing the strength, by orientation drawing, which corresponded to the nanotechnology principle of “top-down” processing. The wide use of the more progressive “bottom-up” processing principle by regulating the fibrillar structure by selecting the optimum conditions of spinning the fibre was recently supplemented by the method of self-ordering on the molecular level through the liquid-crystalline state. Fibre strength of 500–600 kgf/mm2 was attained with this method. The energetic mechanism of transition of a substance into the liquid-crystalline state was substantiated. To attain a high degree of ordering of the fibrils before spinning, it is necessary to destroy the structural network of linkages in the spinning solutions and melts as completely as possible.