The observation of PP / EVA blends in which isotactic PP was preradiated with different radiation absorbed doses

Isotactic polypropylene (PP) was preradiated by γ ray with different absorbed doses and subsequently blended with ethylene‐vinyl acetate (EVA) co‐polymer to prepare PP/EVA blends. The average molecular weight ( M n ) of isotactic PP decreased with the increasing radiation absorbed dose, which indicated that high energy radiation of γ ray broke the isotactic long PP chains into shorter ones. The melt flow rate results evidenced that the processing ability of PP/EVA blends was continuously promoted with the increasing absorbed dose. The β crystal was obtained in the PP/EVA blends by the radiation method. The onset temperatures and peaks of crystallization of PP/EVA blends decreased slightly with the increasing radiation absorbed dose, while high energy radiation was inclined to enhance the crystallinity of PP/EVA blends. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) tests confirmed an interesting phenomenon that PP tended to move to the surface of the PP/EVA blends with the increasing radiation absorbed dose. Mechanical tests proved that the PP/EVA blends remained a comparative stable mechanical property under the absorbed dose of 30 kGy. The experimental results indicated that PP/EVA blend was a potential candidate for industrial applying. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134 , 45057.