History of super fibers: Adventures in quest of the strongest fiber

Abstract

The high-strength and high-modulus fibers have been widely spread into many industrial applications since the last quarter of the twentieth century. Key technologies leading to the industrial success of the fibers are the molecular designs of rigid polymers giving rise to a spontaneous molecular organization and the gel spinning of flexible polymers. The continuous efforts of a great number of researchers in this field over 40 years are summarized in this chapter.