Effect of nano-scaled styrene butadiene rubber based nucleating agent on the thermal, crystallization and physical properties of isotactic polypropylene

Abstract

The influence of a specific nano-scaled styrene butadiene rubber based β-nucleating agent (β-NA) on the properties of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) was investigated in the current research. β-NA was applied at the concentration ranged from 0.05 to 0.50 wt%. Microscopic observation revealed that the neat iPP crystals grew very slowly; they ranged in size from 100 to 200 lm. The addition of β-NA led to higher population of nuclei and smaller spherulites than those found in neat iPP. The addition of only 0.05 wt% β-NA significantly decreased the sizes of the spherulites down to 5 lm; the crystal grew very rapidly, leading to extremely fine morphology. Analysis by X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed that iPP/β-NA constituted mainly of β-crystal structure. The transformation of β to α phase was observed upon re-extrusion, it was verified by the lowered fraction of the b-crystalline phase (Kβ) although the total degree of crystallinity remained unchanged. A significant improvement in the impact strength of the iPP/β-NA was observed when the β-NA was employed from 0.10 to 0.20 wt%, leading to the formation of tough β-crystals in the β-NA nucleated iPP. The color measurement implied that the iPP nucleated with b-NA was superior in terms of whiteness but it was less transparent, as was evident by the increased haze. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.