Study of the cold drawing of nylon 6 fiber by in-situ simultaneous small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering techniques

The cold drawing of a nylon 6 fiber has been studied with on-line simultane ous small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering techniques. The equatorial cryst allinity index, crystalline orientation, and apparent lateral crystallite s ize as a function of strain were studied by analysis of the wide-angle patt erns. The small-angle patterns were examined with the Guinier analysis and the one-dimensional correlation function method to extract morphological pa rameters such as fibrillar thickness, long period, and lamellar thickness. Upon drawing, the gamma-phase was either directly converted to the or-phase or destroyed while amorphous chains were formed into the cw-phase due to t he increased strain. As strain increased the long period and amorphous thic kness increased while the crystalline thickness increased slightly and then leveled off. The shish-kebob morphology, which was seen initially, transfo rmed into a lamellar morphology by the end of the examined drawing process. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.