Acrylic fiber and its raw material description
Acrylic fiber and its raw material
As per the American federal trade commission, "Acrylic fiber is any long chain synthetic polymer composed of at least 85% by weight of acrylonitrile units''.
As it is made of at least 85% acrylonitrile so it is also named acrylonitrile polymer. Chemically we know venyle cyanide is known as acrylonitrile. There are various types of acrylic fiber. For example Orlon, Acrylan, Cortelly, Creslan, etc.
Some quality of the fiber is near to wool so it is also named synthetic wool. So by this, we can make sweaters and blankets also. But this will not be comfortable as natural wool fiber.
The raw materials of Acrylic fiber: The main element of Acrylic fiber is acrylonitrile. There are many processes to produce acrylonitrile. Basically, this fiber is made commercially. For example, We can make acrylonitrile by the reaction of hydrogen cyanide and acetylene. Another process is also there to make acrylonitrile. We can make reactions with Ethylene and hydrogen cyanide also.
The production flow chart of Acrylic fiber is as below:
Acrylonitrile
↓
Polymerization
↓
Di-methyl formamide formation
↓
Filtering
↓
Spinnerette
↓
Dryer
↓
Stretcher, cutter, and crimper
Acrylic fiber production process:
To production acrylonitrile production by below process.
Step 1: Acrylic fibers main raw material is acrylonitrile. A successfull reaction between acytelin and hydrogen cyanide produce acrylonitrile. The reaction happens under a certain condition where mixture of acytelin and hydrogen cyanide keep in liquid medium and atmospheric pressure at 80°C .Here in liquid meium one catalyst named Cuprus chloride and this chemical helps to make 80% pure acrylonitrile.
Another process to produce acrylonitrile:
In this process ethylene by air and presence of catalyst and be oxidised and produce ethylene oxide and next this ethylene oxide reaction with hydrogen cyanide and produce ethylene cyanhidrine. Then by dehydration of cyanhidrin make polyacrylonitrile.