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Melt rheology of linear and long-chain branched polypropylene blends

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Abstract

The miscibility of linear polypropylene (L-PP) and long-chain branched polypropylene (LCB-PP) blends was studied in relation to the rheological behavior in shearing and elongational deformations of the blends. The rheological properties of four commercial L-PPs with different molecular weights were studied by adding 10, 25, 50, and 75 wt% of LCB-PP to L-PP. The linear viscoelastic properties such as complex viscosity and weighted relaxation spectrum were determined as functions of LCB-PP content. According to the obtained rheological data, the LCB-PP showed a higher zero-shear viscosity and a longer relaxation time than the L-PPs. The linear viscoelastic properties showed an increase in the molecular weight and branched content of the L-PP with a reduction in miscibility. Furthermore, good predictions of linear viscoelastic properties for miscible and immiscible blends were achieved by applying the Palierne model. In uniaxial elongational tests, the L-PP showed no strain hardening behavior. By contrast, the addition of 10 wt% LCB-PP to L-PP resulted in strain hardening behavior at all strain rates. Hence, the strain hardening behavior of the blends was enhanced with LCB-PP content. The elongational viscosity data of the L-PP and LCB-PP and their blends were studied by employing the Molecular Stress Function (MSF) model which could predict the strain hardening behavior of the blends.

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Abbreviations

\(G^{{\prime }}\) :

Elastic modulus

\(G^{{\prime \prime }}\) :

Loss modulus

\(G_{{}}^{*}\) :

Complex modulus

\(\eta^{ + }\) :

Complex viscosity

ω :

Frequency

LCB-PP:

Long-chain branched polypropylene

L-PP:

Linear polypropylene

\(\eta_{0}\) :

Zero-shear viscosity

\(H(\lambda )\) :

Continuous spectrum function

\(g_{i}\) :

Relaxation modulus

\(\lambda_{i}\) :

Relaxation time

MSF:

Molecular Stress Function

\(\phi_{\beta }\) :

Weightfraction of branched component

\(\alpha\) :

Interfacial tension

\(R_{v}\) :

Average radius of droplets

\(a\) :

Diameter of tube segment

\(\sigma (t)\) :

Extra stress tensor

\(f\) :

Molecular Stress Function

\(S_{\text{DE}}^{\text{IA}}\) :

Strain measure of the Doi-Edwards model

\(S_{\text{DE}}\) :

Second-order orientation tensor

\({\mathbf{u}}^{{\prime }}\) :

Unit vector

\(u^{{\prime }}\) :

Length of unit vector

\(\eta_{\text{E}}^{ + }\) :

Transient elongational viscosity

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Dr. SH. Tabatabaei for his valuable ideas throughout this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Polymer Engineering Department, Chemical Engineering Faculty, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box: 14115-114, Tehran, Iran

    Mahshid Maroufkhani & Nadereh Golshan Ebrahimi

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  1. Mahshid Maroufkhani
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  2. Nadereh Golshan Ebrahimi
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Correspondence to Nadereh Golshan Ebrahimi.

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Maroufkhani, M., Golshan Ebrahimi, N. Melt rheology of linear and long-chain branched polypropylene blends. Iran Polym J 24, 715–724 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13726-015-0357-9

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