Effect of a sorbitol nucleating agent on fractionated crystallization of polypropylene droplets

The effect of a sorbitol nucleating agent on crystallization of polypropylene (PP) in droplets was studied. Layer‐multiplying coextrusion was used to fabricate assemblies of 257 layers, in which PP nanolayers alternated with thicker polystyrene (PS) layers. The concentration of a commercial nucleating agent, Millad 3988 (MD) in the layers was varied up to 2 wt %. When the assembly was heated into the melt, interfacial driven breakup of the 12 nm PP layers produced a dispersion of submicron PP particles in a PS matrix. Analysis of optical microscope images and atomic force microscope images indicated that the particle size was not affected by the presence of MD. The crystallization behavior of the particle dispersion was characterized by thermal analysis. In the absence of a nucleating agent, the submicron particles crystallized almost exclusively by homogeneous nucleation at about 40 °C. Addition of a nucleating agent to the PP layers offered a unique opportunity to study the nature of heterogeneous nucleation. Nucleation by MD resulted in fractionated crystallization of the submicron PP particles. The concentration dependence of the multiple crystallization exotherms was interpreted in terms of the binary polypropylene‐sorbitol phase diagram. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 1788–1797, 2007