Effect of annealing on charging properties of electret fibers

In the present work, effect of annealing on charging and surface morphology of isotactic polypropylene (PP) filaments was reported. To enhance the surface crystallinity of the filaments, samples were annealed at 70 and 110 °C for 12 h. As expected, fiber surface crystallinity increased upon annealing which led more stable electret fibers. However, the change in the initial surface potential was not so remarkable. The same trend was also observed in filaments containing a commercial nucleating agent, NA11 (sodium 2,2′-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tertbutylphenyl)-phosphate). Surface crystallinity was analyzed using the intensity of specific peaks obtained from attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy analysis. The surface charge characteristics of fibers were determined using a modified surface potential decay test.