| Abstract: | During spherulitic crystallization of polymers, there is a tendency for low molecular weight and other less crystallizable entities to be rejected from the body of the spherulites. This rejection process causes a segregation of these species to those areas where spherulites impinge. As a result of this segregation, lamellar and spherulite boundaries have a tendency to become weak, often resulting in premature mechanical failure. The objective of this work, anthropomorphically speaking, is to develop a melt miscible blend system in which a propylene copolymer “fools” a polypropylene homopolymer into rejecting the copolymer to the spherulite boundaries as an impurity. However, once the copolymer arrives at these boundaries, the copolymer subsequently connects adjacent spherulites through cocrystallization of the propylene copolymer segments. It was found that addition of either a random ethylene–propylene copolymer or an isotactic–atactic block copolymer was able to yield the desired effect. Cocrystallization was confirmed by calorimetry, and segregation of copolymer and subsequent reinforcement at the spherulite boundaries was directly observed microscopically. Using this approach, toughness was increased with little loss in stiffness. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 36: 2047–2056, 1998 |
