Morphology of in situ poly(ethylene terephthalate)/polyethylene microfiber reinforced composite formed via slit-die extrusion and hot-stretching

This article introduced the morphologies of in situ microfiber reinforced composite (MRC) based on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and polyethylene (PE). The PET/PE MRC was prepared through slit-die extrusion and hot-stretching, followed injection molding at the processing temperature of PE matrix, far below the melting temperature of PET in order to maintain the microfibers. Morphological observation indicated that the PET microfibers could be achieved by the way used in this study, and the microfiber characteristics, such as diameter, diameter distribution, were mainly dominated by PET content at a fixed hot-stretching ratio (HSR) of 19.17. Increasing the PET content the fiber diameter became bigger and the diameter distribution wider, but the minimum fiber diameter always remained constant.