Fractionated crystallization of α-and β-nucleated polypropylene droplets
Abstract
Abstract A layer multiplying coextrusion process was used to produce multilayered polypropylene/polystyrene (PP/PS) films with various nucleating agents. When heated into the melt, the thin PP layers broke up into submicron PP droplets that exhibited fractionated crystallization. If the initial PP layers were 20 nm or less, the resulting droplets exhibited exclusively homogeneous nucleation. If a nucleating agent was added, the systematic departure from homogeneous nucleation provided insight into the nature of the heterogeneous nucleation. In this study, we used thermal analysis, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and wide angle X‐Ray scattering (WAXS) to examine the effect of two nucleating agents. We confirmed with WAXS and AFM that a soluble sorbitol nucleating agent for the PP α‐form operates in three concentration regimes as proposed in a previous study. Morphologically, homogeneous nucleation of the submicron droplets produced a granular texture. The correlation length from small‐angle X‐Ray scattering (SAXS) suggested that the grains contained 1–3 mesophase domains. Drawing on classical nucleation theory, the critical size nucleus of an individual mesophase domain was estimated to be about 2 nm3, which was considerably smaller than the mesophase domain. This pointed to mesophase crystallization that included the processes of nucleation and growth. Additional experiments were performed with nucleating agents for the PP β‐form. However, they were not effective in nucleating crystallization of the droplets, presumably because they were essentially insoluble in PP and the nucleating particles were too large to be accommodated in the PP droplets. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2011
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Addition of nucleating agents can verify the hypothesis that fractionated crystallization originates from a lack of efficient nuclei.
“The origin of fractionated crystallization is ascribed to the lack of efficient nuclei, and this hypothesis can also be verified by the addition of nucleating agents.[ 8 , 13 , 32 , 46 , 4 8 , 4 9 ]”
From Fractionated crystallization in semicrystalline polymers (2021) · cites this paper as [49]
The origin of fractionated crystallization is the lack of efficient nuclei.
“The origin of fractionated crystallization is ascribed to the lack of efficient nuclei, and this hypothesis can also be verified by the addition of nucleating agents.[ 8 , 13 , 32 , 46 , 4 8 , 4 9 ]”
From Fractionated crystallization in semicrystalline polymers (2021) · cites this paper as [49]
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- Authors
- Langhe, D. S., Keum, J. K., Hiltner, A., & Baer, E.
- Affiliations
- Case Western Reserve University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Baer, Eric
- Venue
- Journal of Polymer Science Part B Polymer Physics
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2010-10-13
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 159-171
- ISSN
- 0887-6266 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0488
- OpenAlex
- W2152550450
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 2.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Polymer Science Part B Polymer Physics (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Polymers and Plastics › Polymer crystallization and properties
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Crystallization and Solubility Studies
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Polymers and Plastics › Polymer Foaming and Composites
- Keywords
- polypropylene, fractional crystallization, homogeneous nucleation, heterogeneous nucleation, submicron droplets, nucleating agents, sorbitol, classical nucleation theory, critical nucleus size
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