Preparation and characterization of fibers of waste and fresh polyethylene terephtalate and mixtures of them

Textile fibers were obtained from secondary polyethylene terephtalate (PET) and its mixtures with primary PET at initial orientation of 18000–33000 %, rate of additional orientation drawing 3.5–6.5 times and temperature of thermal fixation 363–413 K. The fibers’ tensile strength was found to decrease and elongation at break to increase with the decrease of their linear density under the conditions of fibers formation. For the fibers based on polymer mixtures, the presence of oxidized fragments in the secondary PET limited the compatibility of the two polymers which resulted in deteriorated tensile properties. The linear density (4–16 dtex), tensile strength (30–50 cN/tex) and elongation at break (20–60 %) of the PET fibers obtained were close to these for the industrially produced polymer fibers. The values of the average diameter of the fibers formed and oriented under laboratory conditions allows classifying them between the fine and the coarse textile fibers which makes them suitable for the textile industry.