Effects of clay on polymorphism of polypropylene in polypropylene/clay nanocomposites |
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Authors: | Wenge Zheng Xuehong Lu Cher Ling Toh Tong Hua Zheng Chaobin He |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Materials Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798;2. Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602 |
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Abstract: | The effects of clay on polymorphism of polypropylene (PP) in PP/clay nanocomposites (PPCNs) under various thermomechanical conditions were studied. In extruded PP and PPCN pellet samples, only α-phase crystallites existed, as they were prepared by rapidly cooling the melt extrudates to room temperature. Under compression, β-phase crystallites can develop in neat PP under various thermal conditions, of which isothermal crystallizing at 120 °C gave the highest content of β-phase crystallites. In contrast, no β-phase crystallite was detected in the PPCN samples prepared under the same conditions. This indicated that clay significantly inhibits the formation of β-phase crystallites. The likely reason is that the presence of clay in PPCNs greatly sped up the crystallization process of the α phase, whereas it had an insignificant effect on the crystallization rates of the β phase. The results also showed that clay may slightly promote the formation of γ-phase PP crystallites in PPCNs. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 1810–1816, 2004 |
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Keywords: | poly(propylene) (PP) clay nanocomposites polymorphism crystallization |
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