Issue 56, 2014

New understanding in the influence of melt structure and β-nucleating agents on the polymorphic behavior of isotactic polypropylene

Abstract

The β-nucleation behavior of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) is a fascinating and important issue in polymer physics; however, little about this phenomenon or its physical nature has been clearly understood. In the present study, by tuning the heating temperature (fusion temperature, Tf), the amount of ordered structures in iPP melt was controlled. In this way, the influence of five types of representative β-nucleating agents (β-NA) on the crystallization behavior of iPP with different melt structures (i.e. the amount of ordered structures) was comparatively studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized optical microscopy (PLOM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and rheological measurement. A surprising synergetic effect was observed between β-NAs with α-/β-dual polymorphic selectivity (dual-selective β-NA) and the ordered structure of iPP, resulting in significant increases of the β-nucleation efficiency and the β-phase proportion of the sample. PLOM observation of the crystallization process confirmed that with the presence of ordered structures in iPP melt, a mass of dark, small crystal embryos derived from self-nuclei uniformly distributed in the melt and exhibited β-nucleation efficiency. This work provides the first evidence that for iPP nucleated with dual-selective β-NA, the ordered structures play a determining role in the β-nucleation of iPP. Under the influence of the dual-selective β-NA, the ordered structures exhibited β-nucleation efficiency and therefore encouraged β-nucleation. A possible mechanism was proposed.

Graphical abstract: New understanding in the influence of melt structure and β-nucleating agents on the polymorphic behavior of isotactic polypropylene

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 May 2014
Accepted
16 Jun 2014
First published
16 Jun 2014

RSC Adv., 2014,4, 29514-29526

Author version available

New understanding in the influence of melt structure and β-nucleating agents on the polymorphic behavior of isotactic polypropylene

J. Kang, G. Weng, Z. Chen, J. Chen, Y. Cao, F. Yang and M. Xiang, RSC Adv., 2014, 4, 29514 DOI: 10.1039/C4RA04231J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements