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Annealing-induced crystalline structure and mechanical property changes of polypropylene random copolymer

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Abstract

In this work, the effects of annealing treatment on the crystalline structure and mechanical property changes of polypropylene random copolymer (PPR) were comparatively investigated. Wide angle x-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry were used to study the crystalline structure evolution of the annealed PPR sample. The relaxation behavior of the annealed PPR sample was analyzed using dynamic mechanical analysis. The mechanical properties and the toughening mechanism were also investigated. The results showed that the crystalline structure evolution of the annealed PPR sample depended on the annealing temperature. Due to the largely increased molecular chain mobility in the amorphous region, which promoted the plastic deformation of the annealed PPR sample under the impact condition, largely enhanced impact strength was achieved at a moderate annealing temperature. Further results showed that relatively shorter annealing duration could induce the apparent changes of crystalline structure and mechanical properties of the PPR sample.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Authors express their sincere thanks to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51173151), Distinguished Young Scholars Foundation of Sichuan (Grant No. 2012JQ0057), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant Nos. SWJTU12CX010, SWJTU11CX142, and SWJTU11ZT10) for financial support. Prof. Qiang Fu (Sichuan University, People’s Republic of China) is greatly appreciated for the assistance of the DMA measurement.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China

    Jing-wei Chen, Jian Dai, Jing-hui Yang, Ting Huang, Nan Zhang & Yong Wang

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  1. Jing-wei Chen
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Correspondence to Yong Wang.

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Chen, Jw., Dai, J., Yang, Jh. et al. Annealing-induced crystalline structure and mechanical property changes of polypropylene random copolymer. Journal of Materials Research 28, 3100–3108 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2013.332

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