Isothermal crystallization behaviors of isotactic polypropylene nucleated with α/β compounding nucleating agents

Sodium 2,2′‐methylene‐bis(4,6‐di‐tert‐butylphenyl) phosphate (NA40) and N,N‐dicyclohexylterephthalamide (NABW) are high effective nucleating agents for inducing the formation of α‐isotactic polypropylene (α‐iPP) and β‐iPP, respectively. The isothermal crystallization kinetics of iPP nucleated with nucleating agents NABW, NA40/NABW (weight ratio of NA40 to NABW is 1:1) and NA40 were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Avrami equation was adopted to analyze the experimental data. The results show that the addition of NABW, NA40/NABW and NA40 can shorten crystallization half‐time (t_1/2) and increase crystallization rate of iPP greatly. In these three nucleating agents, the α nucleating agent NA40 can shorten t_1/2 of iPP by the largest extent, which indicates that it has the best nucleation effect. While iPP nucleated with NA40/NABW compounding nucleating agents has shorter t_1/2 than iPP nucleated with NABW. The Avrami exponents of iPP and nucleated iPP are close to 3.0, which indicates that the addition of nucleating agents doesn't change the crystallization growth patterns of iPP under isothermal conditions and the crystal growth is heterogeneous three‐dimensional spherulitic growth. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 590–596, 2007     

Investigation on the dynamic crystallization and melting behavior of β‐nucleated isotactic polypropylene with different stereo‐defect distribution—the role of dual‐selective β‐nucleation agent

The selectivities of different β‐nucleating agents might be quite different from each other, which is important in determining the crystallization and properties of the obtained β‐isotactic polypropylene (β‐iPP). However, the relationship between molecular structure and dynamic crystallization behavior of β‐iPP nucleated by dual‐selective β‐nucleating agent (DS‐β‐NA) is still not clear. In this study, the dynamic crystallization and melting behavior of two β‐iPP with nearly same average isotacticity but different stereo‐defect distribution, nucleated by a DS‐β‐NA (N,N′‐dicyclohexyl‐2,6‐naphthalenedicarboxamide; trade name TMB‐5), were studied by differential scanning calorimetry, wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction, and scanning electronic microscopy. The results indicated that in the presence of TMB‐5, the dynamic crystallization and melting behavior of the samples are quite different because the joint effects of the dual selectivity of TMB‐5 and stereo‐defect distribution of the iPP under different cooling rates. Two important roles were observed: (i) slow cooling rate favors the formation of high β‐fraction; and (ii) high crystallization temperature favors the crystallization of α‐phase accelerated by TMB‐5. Generally, the dual selectivity of the DS‐β‐NA, the stereo‐defect distribution of iPP, and the cooling rate were important factors in determining the formation of β‐crystal. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of β‐nucleating agent and crystallization conditions on the crystallization behavior and polymorphic composition of isotactic polypropylene/multi‐walled carbon nanotubes composites

In this study, the effects of crystallization conditions (cooling rate and end temperature of cooling) on crystallization behavior and polymorphic composition of isotactic polypropylene/multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (iPP/MWCNTs) composites nucleated with different concentrations of β‐nucleating agent (tradename TMB‐5) were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD) and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). The results of DSC, WAXD and SEM revealed that the addition of MWCNTs and TMB‐5 evidently elevates crystallization temperatures and significantly decreases the crystal sizes of iPP. Because of the competition between α‐nucleation (provided by MWCNTs) and β‐nucleation (induced by TMB‐5), the β‐phase crystallization takes place only when 0.15 wt% and higher concentration of TMB‐5 is added. Non‐isothermal crystallization kinetics study showed that the crystallization activation energy ΔE of β‐nucleated iPP/MWCNTs composites is obviously higher than that of pure iPP, which slightly increases with the increase of TMB‐5 concentration, accompanying with the transition of its polymorphic crystallization behavior. The results of non‐isothermal crystallization and melting behavior suggested that the cooling rate and end temperature of cooling (T_end) are important factors in determining the proportion and thermal stability of β‐phase: Lower cooling rate favors the formation of less amount of β‐phase with higher thermal stability, while higher cooling rate encourages the formation of higher proportion of β‐phase with lower thermal stability. The T_end = 100°C can eliminate the β–α recrystallization during the subsequent heating and therefore enhance the thermal stability of the β‐phase. By properly selecting TMB‐5 concentration, cooling rate and T_end, high β‐phase proportion of 88.9% of the sample was obtained. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Nucleation characteristics of the α/β compounded nucleating agents and their influences on crystallization behavior and mechanical properties of isotactic polypropylene

Nucleation characteristics of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) nucleated by the α/β compounded nucleating agents (NAs) were investigated by wide‐angle X‐ray scattering, differential scanning calorimetry and mechanical testing. The results showed that the nucleation effect of the α/β compounded NAs depends on not only nucleation efficiency (NE) of individual β and α NAs and their ratios but also the processing conditions, especially the cooling rates. The nucleating characteristics of the α/β compounded NAs can be illustrated by competitive nucleation. The NA with high NE played a leading role during iPP crystallization even at a low weight ratio and at different cooling rates. The stiffness and toughness of iPP can be simultaneously improved by using suitable compositions at the appropriate ratios. Finally, the nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of iPP nucleated with the α/β compounded NAs was described by Caze method and the crystallization activation energy of nucleated iPP was calculated by Kissinger equation. The result indicated that the crystal growth pattern of nucleated iPP was heterogeneous nucleation followed by three‐dimension spherical growth. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 48: 653–665, 2010     

Crystallization and melting behaviors of isotactic polypropylene nucleated with compound nucleating agents

Crystallization and melting behaviors of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) nucleated with compound nucleating agents of sodium 2,2′‐methylene‐bis (4,6‐di‐tert‐butylphenyl) phosphate (hereinafter called as NA40)/dicyclohexylterephthalamide (hereinafter called as NABW) (weight ratio of NA40 to NABW is 1:1) were studied by differential scanning calorimetry and wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD), the relative β‐amount of iPP nucleated with these compound nucleating agents was also calculated in Turner‐Jones equation by using wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction data. Under isothermal crystallization, there exists a temperature range favorable for formation of β‐iPP. When the concentration of compound nucleating agents is 0.2 wt %, the temperature range is from 100 to 140 °C. While in nonisothermal crystallization, lower cooling rate is favorable for form of β‐iPP and the relative β‐amount of iPP increases with the decreasing of cooling rate in crystallization process. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 46: 911–916, 2008     

Non-isothermal crystallization behavior of polypropylene with nucleating agents and nano-calcium carbonate

The non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and nucleated iPP was investigated by DSC. The crystalline morphology of iPP was observed by polarized light microscopy. It was found that the crystallization rate increased with the addition of nanometer-scale calcium carbonate (nm-CaCO₃) particles. The addition of dibenzylidene sorbitol (DBS) could greatly reduce the spherulite size of iPP. The crystallization temperature for the iPP with DBS was higher than for non-nucleated iPP. DBS was an effective nucleating agent for iPP. The results of measurements suggested that there was a coordinated action to the crystallization of iPP when the organic nucleating agents (DBS) and nm-CaCO₃ were added to iPP together. Comparison to the modified Avrami equation and Ozawa equation, another method—Mo’s method can describe the non-isothermal crystallization behavior of iPP and nucleated iPP more satisfactorily.     

Specificity and versatility of nucleating agents toward isotactic polypropylene crystal phases

Nucleating agents with an ≈6.5 Å lattice parameter induced the α phase of isotactic polypropylene (iPP, α‐iPP). A 6.5 Å periodicity is also involved in the nucleating agents for the β phase of iPP (β‐iPP). The similarity in substrate periodicities suggests that some nucleating agents may induce either the α or β phase under different crystallization conditions. 4‐Fluorobenzoic acid, dicyclohexylterephthalamide, and γ‐quinacridone (the latter two are known as β‐iPP nucleators) were tested over a wide range of crystallization temperatures [up to crystallization temperature (T_c) > 145 °C]. The two former nucleating agents induce exclusively α‐iPP and β‐iPP, respectively. γ‐Quinacridone on the contrary is a versatile agent with respect to the crystal phase generated. More specifically, the same crystal face of γ‐quinacridone induces either β‐iPP or α‐iPP when T_c is below or above ≈140 °C. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40: 2504–2515, 2002     

Crystallization and melting behavior of isotactic polypropylene nucleated with individual and compound nucleating agents

In this study, α-phase nucleating agent (NA) 1,3:2,4-bis(3,4-dimethylbenzylidene) sorbitol (DMDBS), β-phase rare earth NA (WBG), and their compound NAs were introduced into isotactic polypropylene (iPP) matrix, respectively. Crystallization kinetics and subsequent melting behavior of the nucleated iPPs were comparatively studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) under both isothermal and nonisothermal conditions. For the isothermal crystallization process, it is found that the Avrami model successfully described the crystallization kinetics. The active energy of nonisothermal crystallization of iPP was determined by the Kissinger method and showed that the addition of nucleating agents increased the activation energy. Melting behavior and crystalline structure of the nucleated iPPs are dependent on the nature of NAs and crystallization conditions. Higher proportion of β-phase can be obtained at higher content of β-nucleating agent and lower crystallization temperature or lower cooling rate.     

Structure and mechanical properties controlling of elastomer modified polypropylene by compounded β/α nucleating agents

Previous work showed that there was a synergistic effect of nucleating agent (NA) and elastomer in improving the fracture resistance of isotactic polypropylene (PP), relating to the formation of large amounts of β‐PP (β‐NA nucleated system) or the decrease of the spherulites diameters of α‐PP (α‐NA nucleated system). To find the direct relation between the synergistic efficiency of NA/elastomer and the microstructures of the materials, in this work, the ethylene‐propylene‐diene terpolymer (EPDM) modified PP blends with compounded NAs (β/α) were adopted and the changes of the microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated comparatively. The results showed that, with the adjustment of the mass fraction of compounded NAs, the microstructures of PP matrix including supermolecular structure and the relative fraction of β‐PP (K_β) change accordingly. Specifically, the K_β of β‐PP was successfully adjusted in the wide range of 0–78.9%. Consequently, the stiffness and the fracture resistance of the PP/EPDM blends were easily controlled in different degrees. It is believed that this work could provide a guide map for the design and preparation of certain polymer blends satisfying certain requirement. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2011     

Effect of calcium malonate on the formation of β crystalline form in isotactic poly(propylene)

Calcium malonate (Camt) is used to induce the β crystalline form in isotactic polypropylene (iPP) for the first time. The relative content of the β crystalline form (K value) increases markedly with the addition of Camt and attains the maximum value of 73.48% at 0.40% Camt. The amounts of bright and colorful β spherulites increase and the spherulitic sizes decrease with the increase in Camt contents. The tensile strength and the Izod notched impact strength of the nucleated iPP samples increase with the addition of Camt; in particular, the latter almost doubles at 0.40% Camt compared to that of the blank iPP sample. The β nucleation mechanism of Camt is analyzed by the dimensional lattice match criterion. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The mechanism for fracture resistance in β‐nucleated isotactic polypropylene

The effects of molecular weight (MW) of isotactic polypropylene (iPP), the content of β‐PP, the size of its spherulites and the morphology of its α‐phase and β‐phase (α‐ and β‐PP) on the impact strength, with different contents of β‐nucleating agent, were investigated by two ways. The results show that the impact strength of iPPs increased initially, and then decreased with the content of β‐nucleating agent (maximum at 0.1 wt%). The impact strength was related to the size of β‐spherulites and had no apparent correlation with the content of β‐PP. The morphology of the bundle shape and intercrossing boundaries of β‐spherulites were dominant in improving impact strength with low content of β‐nucleating agent, while the MW of iPP was dominant with high content of β‐nucleating agent. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

In situ synthesis of calcium pimelate as a highly dispersed β-nucleating agent for improving the crystallization behavior and mechanical properties of isotactic polypropylene

The reaction precursors pimelic acid (Pi) and calcium stearate (CaSt) were added in situ during extrusion of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) to generate self-dispersed calcium pimelate (CaPi[IS]). The results reveal that the nucleating agents (NAs) synthesized in situ obviously affected the nucleation effect in iPP. The crystallization, mechanical properties and melting behavior of nucleated iPP were investigated. The crystallization temperature (T_c) of iPP modified with CaPi(IS) increased by 4–5°C when compared to that of pure iPP. Especially, when the addition amount of CaPi(IS) in iPP was 0.30 wt%, the relative β-crystal concentration of iPP/CaPi(IS) reached the highest level of 96.47%, 22.71% higher than that of iPP/CaPi. However, Pi and CaSt has hardly impact on the nucleation effect in iPP. The mechanical properties of iPP show that CaPi and CaPi(IS) have excellent toughening effect on iPP while Pi and CaSt greatly improved the stiffness of iPP. Furthermore, the dispersion of these NAs in iPP was investigated by scanning electronic microscope (SEM). It can be clearly seen that the CaPi(IS) particles are uniformly distributed in the iPP after magnification.     

Study of the crystallization behaviors of isotactic polypropylene with sodium benzoate as a specific versatile nucleating agent

Sodium benzoate (SB), a conventional nucleating agent of α‐phase isotactic polypropylene (iPP) was discovered to induce the creation of β‐phase iPP under certain crystalline conditions. Polarized optical microscopy (POM) and wide angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD) were carried out to verify the versatile nucleating activity of SB and investigate the influences of SB's content, isothermal crystallization temperature, and crystallization time on the formation of β‐phase iPP. The current experimental results indicated that, under isothermal crystallization conditions, SB showed peculiar nucleating characteristics on inducing iPP crystallization which were different from those of the commercial β form nucleating agent (TMB‐5). The content of β crystal form of iPP nucleated with SB (PP/SB) increased initially with the increase of crystallization temperature, nucleating agent (SB) percentage or crystallization time, reached a maximum value, and then decreased as the crystallization temperature, nucleating agent percentage or crystallization time further increased. While the content of β crystal form of iPP nucleated with TMB‐5 (PP/TMB‐5) showed a completely different changing pattern with the crystallization conditions. The obvious difference of the two kinds of nucleating agents on inducing iPP crystallization can be explained by the versatile nucleating ability of SB. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 46: 1183–1192, 2008     

Carbon nanoparticles as effective nucleating agents for polypropylene

The effect of four nucleating agents on the crystallization of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. The nucleating agents are: carbon nanofibers (CNF), carbon nanotubes (CNT), lithium benzoate and dimethyl-benzylidene sorbitol. Avrami?s model is used to analyze the isothermal crystallization kinetics of iPP. Based on the increase in crystallization temperature (T _c) and the decrease in half-life time (τ_½) for crystallization, the most efficient nucleating agents are the CNF and CNT, at concentrations as low as 0.001 mass%. Sorbitol and lithium benzoate show to be less efficient, while the sorbitol needs to be present at concentrations above 0.05 mass% to even act as nucleating agent.     

Nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of isotactic polypropylene nucleated with a novel supported β-nucleating agent

The introduction of β-nucleating agent into isotactic polypropylene (iPP) is the most effective method to prepare β-iPP. In this paper, iPP nucleated with a novel highly efficient supported β-nucleating agent (NA100), calcium pimelate (CaHA) supported on the surface of nano-CaCO₃, was prepared and its nonisothermal crystallization kinetic, melting characteristic, and crystallization activation energy are investigated and compared with those of pure iPP, nano-CaCO₃ filled iPP, and β-nucleating agent CaHA nucleated iPP. The results indicate that addition of nano-CaCO₃ increases the crystallization temperature of iPP and has no influence on the crystal form of iPP. iPP and nano-CaCO₃ filled iPP mainly crystallize in the form of α-crystal. Although NA100 and CaHA induce iPP to mainly form β-crystal, NA100 nucleated iPP shows higher crystallization temperature, melting temperature, and β-phase content than that nucleated with CaHA without supports. Nonisothermal crystallization kinetic is well described by the equations of Avrami and Mo, and the crystallization activation energy was calculated from Kissinger’s method. It was found that the decreased crystallization activation energy is favorable to increase the crystallization rate and the content of β-crystal. Although the content of CaHA in 5 wt% NA100 nucleated iPP was less than that in 0.1 wt% CaHA nucleated iPP, the former formed more β-iPP than the latter, indicating that the β-nucleating agent CaHA supported on the surface of nano-CaCO₃ exhibits higher efficiency for preparation of β-iPP than pure CaHA powder.     

Effect of a Nematic Liquid Crystalline Polymer as Highly Active β-Nucleator on Crystallization Structure and Morphology of Isotactic Polypropylene

The effects of nematic liquid crystalline polymer as a new β-nucleator (LCP-N) on crystallization structure and morphology of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) were investigated using wide-angle X-ray diffraction and polarized optical microscopy. The experimental results showed that LCP-N could lead to substantial changes in the crystallization structure and morphology of iPP. The nucleating activity of LCP-N mainly depended on its content, mesogenic molecules, and thermal history of processing. A high content of β-form (K _β) was obtained by the combined effect of the optimum LCP-N content and crystallization temperature. The maximum K _β reached 84% when the LCP-N content and crystallization temperature and time were 0.4 wt.%, 125°C, and 1 h, respectively. In addition, the birefringence of β spherulite was stronger than that of α spherulite; this difference is related to their particular way of growing and lamellar morphology. Due to its particular sheaf-like growth, the β spherulite was brighter and more colorful.     

Combined effect of β-nucleating agent and multi-walled carbon nanotubes on polymorphic composition and morphology of isotactic polypropylene

The effects of nucleating duality, imposed by a mixed nucleating agent (NA) system containing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and a rare earth (WBG), on the crystallization behaviors of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) including the peak temperature of crystallization (T _cp), polymorphic composition, and crystalline morphology, were probed in detail by calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, and polarized light microscopy. In such mixed nucleating agent system, MWCNTs is active filler to induce α-nucleation for iPP, while WBG serves as β-nucleating agent. When the WBG content was low (0.05%), the crystals of WBG were as a form of individual isotropic dendrite, and the enhancement of T _cp was achieved by the incorporation of MWCNTs. As the WBG content was high as 0.1%, a percolated NA network consisted of needlelike crystals of WBG yielded before nucleating the prevalent crystallization of iPP. In this case, the addition of MWCNTs has no obvious effect on T _cp. However, by varying the mass proportion of MWCNTs/WBG, the polymorphic composition was adjusted significantly, indicating a nucleation competition between MWCNTs and WBG. Although the competitive growth existed between α-crystals nucleated by MWCNTs and β-crystals nucleated by WBG, the formation of primary β-crystallite was always prior to the α-nucleated crystallization, as confirmed by crystalline morphology. These findings are useful for developing a new pathway to prepare iPP-based composite with good mechanical property via the addition of mixed nucleating system containing active inorganic filler and β-nucleating agent.     

Crystallization kinetics of isotactic polypropylene nucleated with octamethylenedicarboxylic dibenzoylhydrazide under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions

Octamethylenedicarboxylic dibenzoylhydrazide (TMC-300) was used as a nucleating agent for isotactic polypropylene (iPP) for the first time. The Avrami method and the Caze method were used to analyze the isothermal and non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of iPP incorporated with TMC-300, respectively. During isothermal crystallization, the half crystallization time at 130 °C reduces from 130 s of virgin iPP to 44 s after addition of TMC-300, which reflects that TMC-300 increased the crystallization rate of iPP obviously. The crystallization activation energy decreases from 382.5 kJ mol^?1 of virgin iPP to 275.3 kJ mol^?1 of iPP/TMC-300. During non-isothermal crystallization, the crystallization peak temperature of iPP nucleated with TMC-300 was increased by 5.1 °C when compared to that of virgin iPP at the cooling rate of 20 °C min^?1, and both the reduction of half crystallization time and the increase in peak crystallization temperature also justified that the addition of TMC-300 accelerated the crystallization of iPP.

     

Effects of nucleating agent 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid tris(cyclohexylamide) on properties and crystallization behaviors of isotactic polypropylene

Amide derivatives of 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid are a type of novel nucleating agents for isotactic polypropylene (iPP). Effects of nucleating agent 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid tris(cyclohexylamide) (BTCA-TCHA) on properties and crystallization behaviors of iPP were investigated and the results were compared with those of iPP nucleated with a highly effective commercial nucleating agent Millad 3988. The results showed that BTCA-TCHA was highly effective and it improved greatly the mechanical and optical properties of iPP and increased crystallization peak temperature of iPP obviously. When the addition concentration of BTCA-TCHA was 0.2 wt.%, tensile strength and flexural modulus of iPP were increased by 9.7 and 12.4 %, respectively, and the haze value of iPP was decreased by 53.5 %. When the cooling rate was 20 °C/min, the crystallization peak temperature of iPP was increased from 114.6 °C of virgin iPP to 126.8 °C. In addition, it was found that the nucleation efficiency of BTCA-TCHA was comparable for that of Millad 3988.     

Molecular weight dependency of crystallization and melting behavior of β‐nucleated isotactic polypropylene

Compounds of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and β‐nucleating agent were used to investigate the relationship between the development of β phase and molecular weight in iPP under quiescent crystallization conditions by using wide angle X‐ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry techniques. In all cases, the dependency of the formation of β phase in iPP on molecular weight of iPP at a defined crystallization temperature range was found. The iPP with high molecular weight possessed a wide range of crystallization temperature in inducing rich β phase. However, poor or even no β phase was obtained for the samples with low molecular weight in the same range. In addition, an upper critical crystallization temperature of producing dominant β phase was found at 125 °C. Beyond this temperature, a phenomenon of prevailing α phase became obvious. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014 , 52, 1301–1308