High-Performance Fibres – A Review of Properties and IR-Spectra

Abstract

High-performance fibres are fibre materials that exhibit at least one extraordinary property compared to con¬ventional fibre materials. That extraordinary property is frequently related to excellent fibre stability against certain influences such as fire, heat, chemicals or light. Also, a high mechanical strength is often a property of high-performance fibres. Nevertheless, it should be noted that high-performance fibres exhibit certain weak¬nesses in addition to their advantages. This review presents a broad overview of the most important high-per¬formance fibres, with a special emphasis on their chemical structure and related infrared spectra (IR-spectra). The categorization of the fibres according to chemical substance classes was performed to make it easy for the reader to find a fibre of interest. The main categories are polyethylene (PE) fibres, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibres, polyvinylalcohol (PVAL) fibres, polyester-based fibres, polyamide-based fibres, polyetheretherketone (PEEK) fibres, polyimide (PI) fibres, halogen-containing fibres, polyphenylene sulfide (PPS fibres), resin-based fibres and finally inorganic fibres. Competing materials are also discussed, and structural related materials can be easily identified. In addition to discussing fibre properties and selected applications, one of the main aims is to present a various number of IR-spectra as a tool for structural understanding and to help identify unknown fibres. Here, beside the IR-spectra of high-performance fibres, the reference IR-spectra of common fibres are presented for comparison.

Exemplarily view on selected fluorescence textile products

“…The IR spectra of all four investigated samples are similar and their nearly identical finger print area of IR spectra are presented in Figure 5. The detected IR spectra are in good accordance to IR spectra of polyester PET fabrics and PET bottles reported in the literature [30,31]. No additional signal related to the chemical modification of the fibers can be identified.…”

Extraction of keratin from wool and its use as biopolymer in film formation and in electrospinning for composite material processing

“…The graphs show on the one hand the typical PAN peaks, such as -C≡N stretching at 2245 cm −1 and -CH 2 bending at 1452 cm −1 , slightly decreasing for larger keratin contents. 36–38 On the other hand, the typical keratin peaks like C=O stretching at 1720 cm −1 and CO 2 asymmetric stretching 1560 cm −1 are visible, showing that both materials form composite nanofiber mats, as expected. Quantification of FTIR results is generally problematic in case of thin nanofiber mats where often artifacts are visible.…”

“…Due to the protein structure of keratin, its infrared spectrum is mainly determined by peaks related to the vibrations of the N-monosubstituted amide groups. 36 The peaks at 1615 and 1593 cm −1 can be correlated to the amide signals Amide I and Amide II, which are related to C=O stretching vibration and a combination of stretching vibration of C-N with a deformation vibration of C-N-H. 37,38 The signal at 782 cm −1 can be correlated to the Amide V signal, which is related to a deformation vibration of N-H (Figure 6). 37 Of course, keratin as a protein is not only built up by amide groups; the side groups also exhibit several different functional groups leading to manifold other IR signals.…”

Hybrid sol-gel materials for realization of radiation protective coatings—a review with emphasis on UV protective materials

“…These spectra clearly show the peaks typical for the fiber materials in polyester and cotton fabrics. These peaks are caused by related vibrations of chemical bonds present in the polymers building up the fiber materials [26,27]. Following application of the silica sol coating without additional additives, new peaks arising from vibrational modes of Si-O-Si species are observed in the transmission spectra, with the strongest of these observed near 12500 nm [28][29][30].…”