Dry-jet wet-spinning

In a typical commercial dry jet-wet spinning process, PPT polymer of inherent viscosity 6.0 dL/g is added to 99.7% sulfuric acid in a water-jacketed commercial mixer in a ratio of 46 g of polymer to 100 mL of acid. The mixture is sealed in a vacuum of 68.5—76 mL of mercury. Mixing takes place for 2 h... 

Fig. 6. Schematic of dry-jet wet spinning employing tube-in-orifice spinneret A, bore injection medium (liquid, gas, or suspended soHds) B, pump C, spinneret D, polymer spinning solution E, micrometer ( -lm) "dope" filter F, coagulation or cooling bath G, quench bath and H, collection spool.

Research effort at Albany International Research Co. has developed unit processes necessary for pilot scale production of several species of reverse osmosis hollow fiber composite membranes. These processes include spin-dope preparation, a proprietary apparatus for dry-jet wet-spinning of microporous polysul-fone hollow fibers, coating of these fibers with a variety of permselective materials, bundle winding using multifilament yarns and module assembly. Modules of the membrane identified as Quantro II are in field trial against brackish and seawater feeds. Brackish water rejections of 94+% at a flux of 5-7 gfd at 400 psi have been measured. Seawater rejections of 99+% at 1-2 gfd at 1000 psi have been measured. Membrane use requires sealing of some portion of the fiber bundle for installation in a pressure shell. Much effort has been devoted to identification of potting materials which exhibit satisfactory adhesion to the fiber while... 

Benzobisthiazole random copolymers (X) [38] were also prepared using 2-methyl terephthalic acid and terephthalic acid with l,4-dimercapto-2,5-diamino-1,4-benzene dihydrochloride. Various copolymers provided materials with a wide range of crosslink densities. High quality fibers with spin draw ratios as high as 50 to 1 were obtained by dry-jet wet spinning of anisotropic polymerization mixtures. Heat treatment of the fibers was carried out in a tube oven... 

In most of the previous work with polyimide fibers, the fibers were spun from poly(amic acid) precursors, which were thermally imidized in the fiber form. However, high degrees of imidization were not achieved. Thus, tensile properties of these polymers were not as good as those of high-performance fibers. Work in our laboratories has shown that when the fibers are spun directly from preimidized polymers, it is possible to achieve tensile properties that are as good or even better than those of poly(p-phenyleneterephthalamide) (PPTA or Kevlar ) fibers. For example, fibers have been prepared from m-cresol solutions of BPDA-PFMB using a dry-jet wet-spinning method. The as-spun fibers were then extensively drawn and annealed above 400°C to achieve excellent mechanical properties. 

In both cases a dry-jet wet-spinning process is used employing coagulation baths of water or water/methanesulphonic acid. 

Figure 4.18 Comparison of the dry jet-wet spinning method used with nematic liquid oystals and the spinning of a conventional polymer (after Jaffe and Jones, 1985).

Method to Trace the Evolvement of Morphology in a Dry-Jet Wet Spinning Process... 

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