Effect of Processing Conditions on the Structure and Properties of Poly(Trimethylene Terephthalate) Fibers and Nonwovens Produced in the Spunbonding Process

Melt-spun poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) fibers are generally prepared by mechanical drawing. Herein, PTT fibers and nonwovens were prepared using spunbonding technology by air drawing. The surfaces of PTT fibers are smooth and their evenness is very uniform. When drawing air velocity increases from 0 to 16.5 m/s at mass throughput of 36.0 mL/min, crystallinity and tensile strength of fibers increase from 11.5 to 21.2% and from 53.9 ± 5.3 to 177.3 ± 18.7 MPa, respectively, while elongation at break of samples decreases from 675.2 ± 52.0 to 374.8 ± 37.2%. Comprehensive analysis indicates that PTT spunbond nonwoven achieves the best combination of different properties when drawing air velocity and bonding temperature are 14.0 m/s and 60 °C, respectively. Under this condition, pore size, tensile strength along machine direction, tensile strength cross machine direction, bursting strength, filtration efficiency for PM_2.0, pressure drop, and porosity of nonwovens are 8.3 ± 1.9 μm, 5.88 ± 0.54 MPa, 6.49 ± 0.59 MPa, 0.110 ± 0.006 MPa, 92.2 ± 1.6%, 119 ± 14 Pa, and 68.2%, respectively. The prepared PTT spunbond nonwovens are potentially competitive in the fields of packaging and air filtration due to their pleasing comprehensive properties.