Highly Elastic Fibers Made from Hydrogen-Bonded Polymer Complex

In this letter, we put forward an approach to prepare hydrogen-bonded complex fibers. First, a spinnable fluid is obtained by restricting hydrogen bonds, and then it is extruded through a spinneret into a coagulation bath where hydrogen bonds are built to induce fiber formation. The hydrogen-bonded poly(acrylic acid)/poly(ethylene oxide) (PAA/PEO) complex was prepared into fibers. PAA/PEO fiber shows excellent elastic behavior and can be drawn to more than 12x its original length without breaking, which is much higher than Spandex fiber or natural rubber fiber. In the fiber, PAA and PEO are miscible in the molecular level. Dynamic hydrogen bonding between PAA and PEO restricts the crystallization of PEO, retains flexibility of polymer chains, and also provides recovery forces when removing stress.