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Investigation of the crystallization and mechanical properties of wood fiber/polypropylene composites nucleated by a self-assembly β-nucleating agent

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Abstract

Isotactic polypropylene (PP) is a widely used and versatile commodity polymer with several polymorphs (α, β, γ). β-form isotactic PP attracted more interest due to its improved mechanical properties in comparison with the more common α-form. Addition of β-nucleating agents is an easy approach to induce β-form in isotactic PP. Few studies paid attention to the use of β-PP as the matrix of natural fiber/PP composites. In this study, isotactic PP was nucleated by a β-nucleating agent N, N’-dicyclohexylterephthalamide (TMB-5) and then melt compounded with poplar wood fiber (WF) to prepare WF/PP/TMB composites. The influence of adding different contents (0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.3 and 0.5%) of TMB-5 on the crystalline morphology, melting and crystallization behavior, mechanical properties and heating deflection temperature (HDT) of WF/PP composites was investigated. It was found that TMB-5 accelerated the crystal nucleation and induced β-crystal growth due to TMB-5 provided the nucleation site. The crystals size of WF/PP/TMB composite decreased and crystals boundaries became blurred with the increasing contents of TMB-5. The TMB-5 contents also affected the self-assembly morphology of TMB-5 which further influenced the morphology of crystals. The relative content of β-crystal (\({\mathrm{K}}_{\upbeta }\)) reached maximum value of 65.3% when the content of TMB-5 was 0.3%. But WF decreased \({\mathrm{K}}_{\upbeta }\) of PP/TMB under same content of TMB-5 which demonstrated the interference of WF with the generation of β-crystal. For mechanical properties, impact strength of WF/PP/TMB composite reached maximum value of 9.6 kJ·m−2 when adding 0.05% TMB-5. The TMB-5 contents had an insignificant effect on the flexural strength and modulus of WF/PP/TMB composite. Compressive strength of WF/PP/0.3%TMB composite reached maximum value of 64.4 MPa, which increased by 25.5% compared to WF/PP composite. Moreover, TMB-5 could improve the HDT of WF/PP composite as well. These results revealed that the addition of β-nucleating agent TMB-5 is an effective and practical method to improve crystallization rate and mechanical properties of WF/isotactic PP composites. WF/PP/TMB composite can be used in construction decoration, catering, automobile applications.

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Acknowledgements

The work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31901250). The authors would like to thank PhD. Candidate Lei Zhang for his assistance in preparing the samples.

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  1. Research Institute of Wood Industry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, 100091, People’s Republic of China

    Chao Lv, Shupin Luo & Wenjing Guo

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  1. Chao Lv
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  2. Shupin Luo
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  3. Wenjing Guo
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Correspondence to Shupin Luo.

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Lv, C., Luo, S. & Guo, W. Investigation of the crystallization and mechanical properties of wood fiber/polypropylene composites nucleated by a self-assembly β-nucleating agent. Polym. Bull. 80, 5239–5256 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-022-04313-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-022-04313-z

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