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Nucleation and crystallization behavior of isotactic polypropylene induced by zinc tetrahydrophthalate

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Abstract

The nucleation and crystallization behavior of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) induced by zinc tetrahydrophthalate (NA) was investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry, wide-angle X-ray diffraction and polarized optical microscopy. The results show that NA is a highly effective β-nucleating agent, which can significantly increase the relative content of β-crystal (Kβ) for iPP. When the NA mass fraction is 0.10%, the Kβ value reaches a maximum of 0.972. The nonisothermal crystallization process of iPP and iPP/NA blends can be described by Jeziorny equation. The reason for NA to accelerate the crystallization of iPP is to reduce the nucleation barrier and increase the nucleation density and rate of iPP, instead of accelerating the crystal growth rate. The ordered structures of iPP inhibit β-crystallization induced by NA. Meanwhile, the introduction of NA also reduces the α-nucleating activity of the ordered structures. The impact strength and elongation at break of the iPP significantly increased with the addition of NA, while there was no loss in the tensile strength and flexural modulus.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development (PAPD) of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Environmentally Friendly Polymeric Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, China

    Jingru Liu & Yingtong Pan

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Correspondence to Jingru Liu.

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Liu, J., Pan, Y. Nucleation and crystallization behavior of isotactic polypropylene induced by zinc tetrahydrophthalate. Polym. Bull. 79, 4563–4580 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-021-03717-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-021-03717-7

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