Abstract
We carried out an isothermal crystallization experiment on isotactic polypropylene (iPP) containing 0.2 and 3.0% of 1,3:2,4-bis(p-methylbenzylidene)sorbitol (PDTS) as a nucleation additive. Compared with neat iPP, the induction period before crystallization was markedly shortened, and thus the quench depth became shallower by ∼15 °C. Avrami analysis showed that the Avrami exponent was very sensitive to temperature; it decreased from 3.5–4 to 2 with a decrease in the crystallization temperature Tc (that is, an increase in the cooling depth) of only 4 °C, in contrast with iPP, where the exponent was 4 for all Tc. Small-angle X-ray scattering showed an upturn at low q only for iPP/PDTS, suggesting that the gel network made from PDTS was formed before iPP crystallization. This study shows that the iPP/PDTS crystallization kinetics and its temperature sensitivity were determined by the competition between two events: PDTS network growth and iPP crystallization.
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Acknowledgements
All of the synchrotron X-ray measurements were carried out at the BL-03XU beamline (FSBL) at SPring-8 with the approval of the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (2012A7221, 2011B7271, 2011A7221, 2010B7275). We appreciate Miss Naoko Fukuoka for kind support.
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Katsuno, S., Yoshinaga, M., Kitade, S. et al. Crystallization kinetics of polypropylene containing a sorbitol nucleating agent. Polym J 45, 87–93 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2012.199
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/pj.2012.199
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