Studies on the biaxial stretching of polypropylene film. III. Electron microscopic observation of the one-step biaxial stretching of isotactic polypropylene spherulites

Polypropylene films of various isotacticities and crystallinities were stretched biaxially in one step in air at 140–152°C or polyaxially in poly(ethylene glycol) at 130–160°C, and the morphological changes were studied by electron microscopy (replica). In the initial stage of stretching, with v_A = 1.4, the spherulites of one of the films used for the experiment were broken both from the centers and boundaries, and those of another film were broken mainly from the center. This difference in the deformation behavior seems to be characteristic of the film properties and independent of the method of stretching, although the factors involved are still unknown. On further stretching (v_A = 22), well annealed spherulites were broken into many small blocklike fragments with unfolded fibrils running among them, particularly at the low stretching temperature (140°C), and fibrillation proceeded at the expense of the residual fragments. In the case of quenched or slightly crystallized material, the fragments were dendritic and divided into finer and finer fibrils on stretching. At elevated temperature, however, even for well annealed spherulites, the deformation behavior resembles that of the quenched material, and at a high degree of stretching the spherulites take on the fibrillar net structure in every case. In films containing a high amount of atactic fraction, radial, tangential, and boundary cracking occurred more easily, and broad fibrils were observed across the cracks.     

Studies on biaxial stretching of polypropylene film. IV. Overall orientation during one-step biaxial stretching and its application to the estimation of the principal refractive indices of isotactic polypropylene

Polypropylene film was biaxially stretched in one step in air at 140°C or 152°C, and the deformation was studied optically. A linear relation held between Δn_ss and v_A^?½ for v_A > 10, at both temperatures, where Δn_ss is the birefringence with respect to the normal to the film and v_A is the degree of stretching expressed as the factor by which the area of the film is increased. Extrapolation of data in this linear region yielded a value of 20 × 10^?3 for ?Δn_ss at infinite v_A. Since it is presumed that the polypropylene molecules lie completely parallel to the film surface when the film is stretched infinitely, ?Δn_ss at v_A^?½ = 0 must be just half Δn°, the intrinsic birefringence in the case of completely parallel orientation. Thus, Δn° must be 40 × 10^?3. This value was obtained experimentally in uniaxial stretching when the birefringence with respect to the direction of drawing was extrapolated to infinite extension. Similar relations held between n_p, the average of the refractive indices in the two stretching directions, and v_A, and between n_ss, the index normal to the film, and v_A. By similar extrapolations, (1/2)(n′_γ + n′_β) and n′_β = n*_α′ were estimated, and thence nα′ was obtained. Here, n′_α and n′_β are the refractive indices along the c axis (molecular chain axis) and b axis. All these optical parameters refer to a density of 0.900 g/cm³. Hence by applying a density correction to those values, the principal refractive indices and the intrinsic birefringence of polypropylene crystal were evaluated as follows: n_α = 1.5522, n_β = n*_α = 1.5106 and Δn_c° = 4.16 × 10^?3, where n*_α is the refractive index prependicular to the b and c axes of the crystal.     

Melting behavior of highly stretched isotactic polypropylene film

Isotactic polypropylene film was stretched in poly(ethylene glycol) at 140°C and its melting behavior was investigated by using a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC-1B). The shape of the melting curve depends largely on the stretching ratio, v. A sample stretched to moderate extension (1 < v < 3.5–4) has only a single melting peak (163°C) in the thermogram. When the sample is stretched beyond v = 3.5–4, the thermogram becomes more and more complex with increase of v, and some peaks appear when stretched to 10 < v < 13. The lowest peak which is considered to be the melting peak of the intermolecular crystals produced by the unfolding of chain molecules in the lamellae develops gradually with increase of v. In the thermogram for v = 18 the lowest temperature peak is most pronounced, in contrast to the highest temperature peak which decreases markedly in intensity. The phenomenon shows that large amounts of lamellar crystals are converted to intermolecular crystals in this region. On further stretching (v > 20) a very sharp high temperature peak appears, whose half-width is about 1°C. Qualitatively similar results were obtained for the samples stretched in poly(ethylene glycol) at 150°C and in air at 140 and 150°C.     

Influence of the stretching in the crystallinity of biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films

Summary The production of biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films, by tenter-frame technology in its different steps, was studied to find the crystalline morphology of these films. DMA, DSC, and WAXD measurements and tensile tests were carried out for the cast film, the MDO film (the produced film in the machine direction orienter unit) and BOPP film. The obtained results suggest that the stretchings lead to a strong alignment of the crystals, producing fibers oriented in the stretching direction. This fact can be proved by WAXD, DMA, and tensile tests, moreover the DSC technique is not sensitive to detect these changes.     

Orientation of the α- and γ-modification of elastic polypropylene at uniaxial stretching

New metallocene catalysts applied to propylene polymerization expand the range of properties of polypropylene (PP), resulting in semi-crystalline materials having crystallinities below 60% up to X-ray amorphous highly elastic ones. To date the origin of the unique elastic mechanical behavior of such low crystalline PP is not completely understood. Therefore, the microscopic orientation of those PPs due to uniaxial stretching was investigated using wide-(WAXS) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The aim of this study was to correlate these orientations or changes in the developed fiber textures with the macroscopic stress-strain behavior. This includes efforts to come closer to the main question of the nature of the physical cross-links in these not chemical cross-linked homopolymers, which is the reason for the high elastic behavior. Therefore, high molecular weight metallocene PPs showing different crystallinities (0-36%) were stretched to several elongations and the structural changes during the deformation were recorded by X-ray scattering. Stress-strain measurements show the great potential of these PPs as a thermoplastic rubber material. For quantitative analysis and discussion of the polymer chain orientations, the orientation functions were calculated. Correlations between the orientation functions and the stress-strain curves allow an interpretation of the macroscopic behavior on a microscopic scale. A higher cross-linking density in elongated samples indicates that the network, which is responsible for the elasticity, mainly built up by strain-induced morphology changes and chain orientations.     

Studies on wettability of polypropylene/methyl-silicone composite film and polypropylene monolithic material

A polypropylene/methyl-silicone superhydrophobic surface was prepared using a simple casting method. Varying the ratio of polypropylene and methyl-silicone results in different surface microstructure. The wetting behavior of the as-prepared surface was investigated. A polypropylene monolithic material was also prepared. Its superhydrophobicity still retains when the material was cut or abraded. The as-prepared material can also be used to separate some organic solvents from water.     

Fabrication of biaxial textured NiO on Ni in a one-step process

A novel method for the preparation of biaxial textured nickel oxide on commercially available nickel via a modified surface oxidation epitaxy (SOE) process has been developed. Following studies of different heat-treatment procedures for both texturing of nickel and for the fabrication of nickel oxide the following method was found to yield the best results. Nickel was first textured under an argon — hydrogen atmosphere at 1000°C for 120 min, then the temperature was lowered to 800°C and the atmosphere was changed to argon with 3 ppm oxygen. Smooth and crack free c-axis textured and a–b aligned NiO buffer layers with an out-of-plane texture of 7.8° and an in-plane texture of 9.4° were successfully produced. Higher oxygen partial pressure and temperatures resulted in increased surface roughness and excessive grain growth.      

Surface orientation of polypropylene. II. Determination for uniaxially and biaxially oriented films using internal reflection spectroscopy

The major objective of this work was to develop a simple and rapid technique to quantitatively measure the macromolecular chain orientation in polypropylene surfaces. A previously described experimental design employing attenuated total reflection spectroscopy near the critical angle was applied. The infrared dichroism of the 841- and 809-cm^?1 bands of polypropylene was used to quantitatively determine a fractional orientation function of the macromolecular chains along the three major film axes (machine direction, transverse direction, and thickness or normal direction). The surface orientation of a set of polypropylene films uniaxially extended from 0 to 500% was determined using this technique. The variation of surface orientation, bulk crystallinity, and thickness with extension of these uniaxially extended films were compared. The surface orientation of an unoriented and several biaxially oriented polypropylene films was compared to the bulk orientation determined by a similar transmission infrared dichroism method. It was found that surface and bulk orientation were generally similar. It was shown that rather small orientations could be measured by the surface orientation method and that it was applicable to multilayer films and very thick samples, where the transmission method fails.     

添加剂对双向拉伸尼龙薄膜性能的影响

为提高双向拉伸尼龙薄膜的拉伸性能及薄膜性能,本文研究了不同成核剂、润滑剂及芳香尼龙对高黏度尼龙性能的影响.添加剂改性尼龙6后,冲击性能和断裂伸长率均有不同程度的提高,注塑样品表现为α晶型结构.尼龙6流延骤冷时形成不稳定的α晶型,经过双向拉伸后,转变为稳定的α晶型,在X射线衍射图谱中表现为较强的单峰.改性尼龙制备的双向拉伸薄膜具有较高的力学性能和较低的雾度,综合性能较好;润滑剂Incromold-T具有更好的综合效果.加入少量的半芳香尼龙MXD6,尼龙6结晶能力下降,薄膜光学性提高,但力学强度明显下降.     

Polymer reactions. V. Kinetics of autoxidation of polypropylene

The rate constants for the autoxidation of polypropylene were determined by a combined ESR, volumetric, and chemical method. The values of k_i, k_p, and k_t at 110°C. are 3 × 10^?4 sec.^?1, 1.9 l./mole-sec., and 3 × 10⁶ l./mole-sec., respectively. The values of k_i and its activation energy are the same as those for the decomposition of polypropylene hydroperoxide, thus identifying the latter as the principal initiation process. The values of the temperature-independent k_t suggest that secondary peroxy radicals are the terminating species. The rate constants are compared with rate constant ratios for initiated autoxidations of squalane and other related systems.     

Application of successive self-nucleation and annealing to study the stereo-defects distribution of biaxially oriented polypropylene

The stereo-defects distribution of polypropylene of the two industry biaxially oriented polypropylene （BOPP） samples T28FE and F28SO with different processing properties was studied through successive self-nucleation and annealing （SSA） technique. It was found that there were more medium isotactic components in sample F28SO, and the isotactic sequence length of polypropylene of sample F28SO was shorter and the isotactic sequence length distribution of polypropylene of sample F28SO was broader, which could be processed well at high-speed orientation during the processing of BOPP films. This result indicates that the isotactic sequence length distribution of polypropylene is related to the processing speed during preparing BOPP films, and the stereo-defects distribution of polypropylene has an important influence on its processing ability.     

Orientation of the diphenylene propane unit in stretched polycarbonate from two-dimensional magic-angle-spinning NMR

Two-dimensional magic-angle-spinning (2D-MAS) NMR has been used to measure the orientation parameter, P₂, of the diphenylene propane unit in bisphenol-A polycarbonate oriented by stretching to various extension ratios,, atT=295K andT= 403 K.P ₂ is proportional to the birefringencen, with a maximum birefringencen ₀= 0.189. There is some evidence that the order parameterP ₂ of the DPP units with respect to the chain axis deviates from unity.n ₀ is therefore expected to be different from the birefringence,n ₀ , of perfectly aligned chains of polycarbonate. The experimental results obtained forP ₂() are compared to those predicted by the aggregate model.     

Studies on Agarofurans V. Studies on the Reductive Ring-Opening of 3,4-Epoxide of Agarofurans

The nature of reductive ring-opening of epoxide has been widely studied. But epoxides of agarofurans with rigid skeleton have their own specificity. Agarofurans have been found to be active on the nervous system in our institute. Reduction of epoxides may afford different types of agarofurans. This prompted us to investigate the reaction.Epoxides 1, 2, 3 were prepared by oxidation of their corresponding olefins1. Generally, the nature of the reduction of epoxides with LAH depends on the ster…     

Bifurcational analysis of the isotropic-nematic phase transition of rigid rod polymers subjected to biaxial stretching flow

A bifurcational analysis is performed on Doi's equation of nematodynamics that describes the non-equlibrium isotropic-nematic phase transition of rigid rod polymers in the presence of steady biaxial stretching flow. The symmetry of the flow and of the governing order parameter equations are shown to be the source of a rich bifurcation, symmetry breaking, and multistability behavior involving two physically equivalent biaxial nematic phases, one uniaxial nematic phase and one uniaxial paranematic phase. According to the relative intensity of the nematic ordering field and stretching rate, the uniaxial isotropic-biaxial nematic transition may be continuous (2nd order), discontinuous (1st order), or it may exhibit a tricritical non-equilibrium phase transition point. The solutions to the Doi equations of nematodynamics are found to be consistent with those of Khokhlov and Semenov [Macromolecules 15 , 1272 (1982)], which are based on a version of the Onsager theory of isotropic-nematic phase transitions. The present simulations provide a useful guide for orientation control in biaxial stretching flows.     

Effects of extension on the gas permeability of hard elastic polypropylene film

Permeabilities of He, N₂, O₂, Ar, and CO₂ in stretched hard-elastic polypropylene film exhibiting extraordinarily high elasticity were measured as functions of temperature, pressure, and extension ratio. The permeability decreases slightly for strains of 10% or less, increases abruptly for strains from 15% to 30%, and then increases gradually for strains up to 100%. In recovery from extension, changes in permeability are similar to those in extension. The gas permeation mechanism is of the solution-diffusion type for extensions less than 15%. Above 15% extension, the mechanism involves permeation through voids created during deformation. The apparent mean pore size, estimated from the gas permeation, is very large at comparatively small extensions, and decreases with increasing extension. The change in specific volume accompanying extension of the sample indicates that only a very small fraction of the voids are interconnected to form channels that traverse the thickness of the film.