Microgroove-Based Continuous-Spinning of Ultra-Strong Polyelectrolyte Nanocomposite Fibers With Aligned Polymer Chains and Nanosheets

Abstract

High-strength fibers have attracted intensive attention owing to their promising applications in various fields. However, the continuous fabrication of polyelectrolyte fibers with ultra-strong mechanical properties remains a great challenge. Herein, we present a scalable microgroove-based continuous-spinning strategy of polyelectrolyte nanocomposite fibers. The shear flow induced the unraveling and aligning of the irregularly coiled polymer chains, which allowed the polyelectrolyte chains to fully contact each other after coalescing and enhanced the interaction between them. Nanocomposite fibers were prepared by adding two-dimensional nanofillers into the negatively charged reaction solution. The nanocomposite fibers with aligned polymers and nanosheets exhibit excellent mechanical properties, with a tensile strength of up to 1783.8 ± 47.1 MPa and a modulus as high as 183.5 ± 4.6 GPa. Quantitative analysis indicates that the shear flow induced orientation of polymer chains and the well aligned nanosheets, as well as the strong interactions of polymer matrix form a dense and ordered structure, all these results in the observed mechanical properties. Moreover, we believe that our strategy could be extended to a variety of other polyelectrolytes and lead to the development of high-performance fibers.