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Investigation on the Roles of β-Nucleating Agents in Crystallization and Polymorphic Behavior of Isotactic Polypropylene

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Abstract

In this study, four types of widely used commercial β-nucleating agents (β-NAs) were used to prepare β-nucleated isotactic polypropylene (β-iPP). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarizing optical microscopy (PLOM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to comparatively study the roles of β-NA in the β-nucleation efficiency, isothermal crystallization kinetics and crystalline morphology of the samples. Results revealed that the geometric shapes and thermal stabilities of the β-NAs are quite different from each other, moreover, the β-nucleation efficiencies (β-NE) of the β-NAs are quite different. The β-NE of NAB83 and PACA are very high, while those of TMB-5 and WBG‑II are relatively low. The critical concentrations of the β-NAs were obtained as follows: NAB83 = 0.02 wt %, PACA = 0.02 wt %, TMB-5 = 0.15 wt %, WBG = 0.3 wt %. Morphological studies of SEM and PLOM indicated that for different β-NAs, the β-phase fraction, crystalline sizes and morphology of the formed β-phase are quite different. Isothermal crystallization kinetics provided detailed kinetic information on the different β-NAs.

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Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC 51503134, 51721091), the State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering (Grant no. SKLPME 2017-3-02) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Research Academy of Dongfang Electric Corporation, 611731, Chengdu, China

    Yuanjie Li, Hongyi Liu & Xinglan Huang

  2. Key Laboratory of Combustion and Explosion Technology, Xi’an Modern Chemistry Research Institute, 710065, Xi’an, China

    Xiuduo Song

  3. State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute of Sichuan University, 610065, Chengdu, China

    Jian Kang, Zhengfang Chen, Fangxinyu Zeng & Jinyao Chen

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  1. Yuanjie Li
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Correspondence to Yuanjie Li.

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Yuanjie Li, Liu, H., Huang, X. et al. Investigation on the Roles of β-Nucleating Agents in Crystallization and Polymorphic Behavior of Isotactic Polypropylene. Polym. Sci. Ser. A 62, 470–480 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0965545X20050119

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