Fabrication of polymer matrix composites reinforced with controllably oriented whiskers

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) reinforced with controllably oriented potassium titanate whisker (PTW) has been prepared. The preparation includes wet-spinning a polymer solution that contains the whiskers, placing the resultant precursor fiber in a die and hot-pressing to form composite. The whiskers are highly aligned along the axis of the fiber as the result of extrusion and drawing in spinning. Therefore, the whisker orientation in the composite can be closely controlled through controlling the directions of the precursor. The degree of whisker alignment is found to depend strongly on drawing ratio, and a simplified mathematical relation is presented. The mechanical properties of the PTW reinforced PVC are reported. The applications of the composite processing technique described above in functional composites are also discussed. (C) 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers.