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Abstract

A porous fluoropolymer alloy material and method of fabrication is provided. The alloy material is fabricated by forming a compressed extrusion billet from two or more fluoropolymer resins capable of being stretched after extrusion and having different stretch characteristics. The fluoropolymer alloy billet is then extruded, stretched and sintered. The resulting material has a microstructure of large nodes interconnected by fibrils all oriented in the direction of stretch and has a higher tensile strength than produceable from previous porous fluoropolymer materials. Also, the resulting material can be made at lower stretch rates and at higher stretch ratios than previously possible without degradation of the material's strength. In one embodiment the resulting product is a self-supporting, tunable asymmetric porous fluoropolymer alloy material having a microstructure comprised of relatively small nodes, short fibrils and small pore size on one surface and relatively large nodes, long fibrils and large pore size on the opposite surface. The microstructure of the material gradually changes from the microstructure of the one surface to the microstructure of the opposite surface through the cross-section of the material's thickness, and all of the fibrils throughout the material are oriented in the direction of stretch.

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