Premium
A highly efficient β‐nucleating agent for impact‐resistant polypropylene copolymer
Author(s) -
Liu YiMin,
Tong ZaiZai,
Xu JunTing,
Fu ZhiSheng,
Fan ZhiQiang
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.40753
Subject(s) - materials science , crystallization , isothermal process , lamellar structure , polypropylene , crystal (programming language) , copolymer , amorphous solid , nucleation , relative humidity , dynamic mechanical analysis , izod impact strength test , chemical engineering , composite material , small angle x ray scattering , polymer chemistry , scattering , polymer , thermodynamics , crystallography , ultimate tensile strength , chemistry , organic chemistry , optics , physics , computer science , engineering , programming language
In this work, we reported calcium tetrahydrophthalate as a high efficient β‐nucleating agent (β‐NA) for impact‐resistant polypropylene copolymer (IPC). The relative fraction of the β‐crystal can reach as high as 93.5% when only 0.03% β‐NA is added. The non‐isothermal and isothermal crystallization behaviors, morphology, lamellar structure and mechanical properties of IPCs with various β‐NA contents were studied. During non‐isothermal crystallization, the cooling rate has an important influence on the relative fraction of the β‐crystal, which decreases remarkably as the cooling rate increases. The β‐NA also greatly accelerates crystallization rate of IPC, resulting from both more crystal nuclei and larger Avrami exponent. The small angle X‐ray scattering characterization shows that more amorphous components are included into the inter‐lamellae after addition of β‐NA. Dynamical mechanical analysis (DMA) reveals that the storage modulus at low temperature and the loss factor above 0 °C from the PP component can be enhanced upon addition of β‐NA and reach a maximum at the β‐NA content of 0.05 wt %. Impact test shows that the impact strength of the IPC at 0°C can be improved as much as 40% when the content of calcium tetrahydrophthalate is 0.10 wt %. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131 , 40753.