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Combined effect of β‐nucleating agent and processing melt temperature on the toughness of impact polypropylene copolymer
Author(s) -
Luo Feng,
Xu Chenlong,
Ning Nanying,
Wang Ke,
Deng Hua,
Chen Feng,
Fu Qiang
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
polymer international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.592
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1097-0126
pISSN - 0959-8103
DOI - 10.1002/pi.4273
Subject(s) - materials science , polypropylene , toughness , copolymer , toughening , nucleation , morphology (biology) , phase (matter) , composite material , amorphous solid , izod impact strength test , chemical engineering , polymer , polymer chemistry , chemistry , crystallography , organic chemistry , ultimate tensile strength , biology , engineering , genetics
Abstract The phase morphology and toughening behavior of impact polypropylene copolymer (IPC) with and without nucleating agent (NA), prepared at different processing melt temperatures ( T p ), were investigated. Interestingly, three different structures can be formed in the IPC samples by adding NA or tuning T p . A well‐defined core–shell structure is obtained in samples with α‐NA or without NA prepared at all T p . A developing multilayered structure is mainly formed at high T p with added β‐NA, while an incomplete phase separation structure with interpenetrating chains is the dominant structure for IPC samples prepared at low T p with added β‐NA. In this case, because of the synergistic effect between phase morphology and relatively high β‐form crystal content, the chain interaction among the components and chain mobility of the amorphous portion of IPC are distinctly improved, resulting in a largely improved toughness under 0 °C. This improvement in toughness is very important for applications. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry