HIGH PERFORMANCE FIBERS: A REVIEW ON CURRENT STATE OF ART AND FUTURE CHALLENGES

Abstract

Improving properties of polymeric and non-polymeric fibers, for example mechanical, dimensional stability, thermal degradation, and other properties, and understanding a recent theoretical investigation on the solid mechanism of single crystal growth during the fiber formation leads to obtain fiber products with unusual characteristics. Similarly, high performance fibers are important engineering products and widely used due to their outstanding mechanical property along with dimensional stability. They have found extensive use as fiber reinforcement and can be utilized in many applications such as cords, ropes, performance fabrics, electronic packaging, sports equipment and fiber optics (Hearle, 2001; Kerr et al., 2005). It is well known that the highest tenacity and elastic moduli reported for such fibers are still much lower than their theoretical values. The open gap between theoretical values and practical results encourage scientists for intriguing researches to improve their mechanical properties. On the other hand, due to their nonconventional chemistry and instrumentation, many researches have been concentrated on reducing its production costs. Additionally, there is no single fiber chemistry that can withstand all sort of end-use conditions. In this study, a review on current state of art high performance fiber production and modification techniques is reported. Current problems and novel solutions were emphasized separately.

Keywords

• high performance
• fibers
• organic
• inorganic
• future directions