화학공학소재연구정보센터
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.54, No.18, 4976-4987, 2015
Abnormal Tensile Creep Behavior of Annealed beta-Nucleated Isotactic Polypropylene
The microstructure changes of beta-nucleated isotactic polypropylene (beta-iPP) during the annealing process and the resultant macroscopic physical property responses were comparatively investigated. The results demonstrated that the annealing process not only increased the crystallinity of beta-iPP samples but also enhanced the chain-segment mobility in the amorphous region. Interestingly, it was observed that the annealed beta-iPP samples obtained at an appropriate annealing temperature exhibited accelerated creep deformation when the tensile creep measurement was carried out at relatively low environmental temperatures and/or small tensile stresses. However, at relatively higher measuring temperatures and/or larger tensile stresses, the role of the crystalline structure in influencing the creep deformation of beta-iPP became dominant, and consequently, the creep resistance of beta-iPP increased with increasing annealing temperature. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the creep deformation of beta-iPP is also highly dependent on the crystalline morphology.