Study of the cold drawing of nylon 6 fiber by in-situ simultaneous small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering techniques

The cold drawing of a nylon 6 fiber has been studied with on-line simultaneous small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering techniques. The equatorial crystallinity index, crystalline orientation, and apparent lateral crystallite size as a function of strain were studied by analysis of the wide-angle patterns. The small-angle patterns were examined with the Guinier analysis and the one-dimensional correlation function method to extract morphological parameters such as fibrillar thickness, long period, and lamellar thickness. Upon drawing, the γ-phase was either directly converted to the α-phase or destroyed while amorphous chains were formed into the α-phase due to the increased strain. As strain increased the long period and amorphous thickness increased while the crystalline thickness increased slightly and then leveled off. The shish-kebob morphology, which was seen initially, transformed into a lamellar morphology by the end of the examined drawing process.