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Non-isothermal crystallization behavior of isotactic polypropylene/copper nanocomposites

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Abstract

The Non-isothermal crystallization behavior of isotactic polypropylene (iPP)/copper nanocomposites with four different mass percentages (0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 mass%) of copper nanoparticles (nCu) were study by means of differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) at 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 °C min−1. The nanostructure of PP/nCu nanocomposites was also studied by WAXD, SEM and optical microscopy, while their hierarchical crystalline morphologies (e.g., spherulites, lamellas and unit cell) were studied during the crystallization progress through polarized optical microscopy and in situ X-ray scattering at small and wide angle, observing that the spherulite size was not influenced by the nCu’s, although the lamellas size and X-ray diffraction intensity increased with the incorporation of nanoparticles. The PP/nCu nanocomposites presented a mixture morphology with well-dispersed oxidized nanoparticles and some agglomerates, which were larger at higher concentration of particles. The crystallization results obtained by DSC indicated a displacement in the peak crystallization temperature at higher values. These results in combination with the kinetic of crystallization analyzed by the Jeziorny method clearly indicated an acceleration in the crystallization process. Additionally, the crystallization activation energy decreases for all nanoparticle’s concentration, indicating a possible nucleating effect. However, the nucleation activity analyzed by the Dobreva and Gutzow’s method showed that nCu could not be considered such as conventional heterogeneous nucleating agent of iPP. Conversely, the incorporation of nCu in the iPP matrix increased significantly the thermal conductivity of nanocomposites helping to the thermal dissipation from the melted macromolecules to the nCu’s, accelerating the non-isothermal crystallization process.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of CONACYT Grant 127151/EU 7th FP Grant 26396 (CuVito Project), the Project 207450/12 SENER/CONACyT/CEMIE-Sol program (Project 12 “Desarrollo de Captadores, Sistemas Solares y Sistemas de Baja Temperatura con Materiales Novedosos para México”) and through Grant 294030 (LANIAUTO). Also, we are grateful to Janett Valdez, Myriam Lozano, María Guadalupe Méndez, and Ana Izabal for their technical assistance in the nanocomposites characterization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CONACyT-Centro de Investigación en Química Aplicada, Blvd. Enrique Reyna Hermosillo. 140, Col. San José de los Cerritos, CP 25294, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico

    J. M. Mata-Padilla

  2. Centro de Investigación en Química Aplicada, Blvd. Enrique Reyna Hermosillo. 140, Col. San José de los Cerritos, CP 25294, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico

    J. M. Mata-Padilla, C. A. Ávila-Orta, J. G. Martínez-Colunga, E. Hernández-Hernández, V. J. Cruz-Delgado, P. González-Morones & S. G. Solís-Rosales

  3. Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Tecnológico Nacional de México en Celaya, Av. Tecnológico y Antonio García Cubas s/n, 38010, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico

    A. Almendárez-Camarillo

  4. Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Tecnológico Nacional de México en Celaya, Av. Tecnológico y Antonio García Cubas s/n, 38010, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico

    J. A. González-Calderón

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  1. J. M. Mata-Padilla
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  2. C. A. Ávila-Orta
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  6. V. J. Cruz-Delgado
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Correspondence to J. M. Mata-Padilla.

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Mata-Padilla, J.M., Ávila-Orta, C.A., Almendárez-Camarillo, A. et al. Non-isothermal crystallization behavior of isotactic polypropylene/copper nanocomposites. J Therm Anal Calorim 143, 2919–2932 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-09512-2

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