Using rheometry to determine nucleation density in a colored system containing a nucleating agent

A new suspension-based rheological method was applied to experimentally study the crystallization of a nucleating agent (NA) filled isotactic polypropylene. This method allows for determination of point nucleation densities where other methods fail. For example, optical microscopy can fail because nucleation densities become too high to be counted (materials with effective NA) or crystallites are not easily visible (colored materials), while differential scanning calorimetry does not allow the effect of flow to be studied. Both quiescent and mild-shear-induced crystallization were investigated. The results show that the addition of a nucleating agent increases the nucleation density by six decades for quiescent crystallization. The effect of shear on crystallization in the presence of a nucleating agent was assessed, and it is demonstrated that, at least for this system, the effect of shear is much smaller than the effect of the nucleating agent.