Fabrication of Grooved Fibers with Enhanced Degradability via Melt Spinning

Modifying fiber surface roughness is an effective way to change the wettability of fiber materials. However, it remains a significant challenge to rapidly and efficiently produce fibers with high surface roughness. In this study, groove structures of different sizes are constructed on the surface of thermoplastic polyurethane(TPU) fibers by a three‐step tailored process of melt spinning, drafting, and selective dissolution. The results show that TPU/paraffin grooved fibers have a variety of groove structures distributed along the axial direction of the fibers. These grooves are up to 200–500 nm in depth, and the TPU/paraffin grooved fibers also change from hydrophilic to hydrophobic due to the appearance of the groove structures. In addition, with the help of the groove structure, TPU/paraffin grooved fibers show good degradation properties. The weight loss reaches 42.5% after 30 days of degradation. The prepared TPU/paraffin grooved fibers can provide an efficient and rapid preparation strategy for degradable self‐cleaning fabrics.