Structural Evolution of PGA Nascent Fiber during Single Low-Temperature and Segmented High-Temperature Hot Stretching

Polyglycolide (PGA) fibers applied as surgical sutures strongly depend on their microstructure. The structural evolution of PGA nascent fibers during single low-temperature stretching and segmented high-temperature stretching was analyzed based on a combination of in situ WAXD/SAXS and DSC measurements. The results indicated that the hot stretching was conducive to the crystal perfection and the local fragmentation and recrystallization of the lamellar crystals may occur under stress induction. The single low-temperature stretching of PGA nascent fibers could be divided into three stages: the stretching of amorphous regions, stretch-induced crystallization and the stretching of crystalline regions. The elongation at break of the fibers can be substantially increased by adopting a segmented stretching method, and the high-temperature stretching can also significantly increase the crystallinity and orientation. The amorphous orientation peak appearing in the low-temperature stretching was gradually converted to crystallization peak during the heating process, which greatly improved the crystallinity and orientation of the fibers. High-temperature stretching compared with low-temperature stretching was more favorable for crystal perfection and structural evolution, where lamellar crystals underwent stress-induced fragmentation recrystallization to transform to fibrous crystals as the strain increased.