Effect of an organic dicarboxylic acid salt on fractionated crystallization of polypropylene droplets

Abstract

Abstract The effect of a particulate nucleating agent on fractionated crystallization of polypropylene (PP) was studied. A novel method utilizing breakup of PP nanolayers was used to obtain a dispersion of PP droplets in a polystyrene (PS) matrix. An assembly with hundreds of PP nanolayers alternating with thicker PS layers was fabricated by layer‐multiplying coextusion. The concentration of an organic dicarboxylic acid salt (HPN) nucleating agent in the coextruded PP nanolayers was varied up to 2 wt %. When the assembly was heated into the melt, interfacial driven breakup of the thin PP layers produced a dispersion of PP particles in a PS matrix. Analysis of optical microscope images and atomic force microscope images indicated that layer breakup produced a bimodal particle size distribution of submicron particles and large, micron‐sized particles. Almost entirely submicron particles were obtained from breakup of 12 nm PP layers. The fraction of PP as submicron particles dropped dramatically as the PP nanolayer thickness increased to 40 nm. Only large, micron‐sized particles were obtained from 200 nm PP nanolayers. The crystallization behavior of the particle dispersions was characterized by thermal analysis and wide angle X‐ray diffraction. Only part of the PP was nucleated by HPN. It was found that HPN was not effective in nucleating the population of submicron particles. The particulate HPN was too large to be accommodated in the submicron PP particles. On the other hand, the amount of nucleated crystallization qualitatively paralleled the fraction of PP in the form of large, micron‐sized particles. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2007