화학공학소재연구정보센터
Polymer Engineering and Science, Vol.61, No.4, 1195-1208, 2021
Influence of nucleation and growth mechanisms on the heat deflection temperature of a reactively processed polypropylene nanocomposite
The development of a reactively processed polypropylene nanocomposite (PPNC) with consequential improvements in the heat deflection temperature (HDT), Vicat softening temperature (VST), and crystallization peak temperature (T-c) is reported herein. Neat PP without nanoclay was also reactively processed to elucidate the effects of fillers on the improvement in physical properties. The results show a considerable improvement in the HDT of PPNC (77.9 degrees C) compared to those of neat PP (62.6 degrees C) and reactively processed branched PP (BPP; 69.2 degrees C). Moreover, the T-c of PP in PPNC improved by similar to 14% compared to that of neat PP. Various models of nonisothermal crystallization kinetics were employed to elucidate the nucleation and crystal growth mechanisms, and to correlate them with the observed HDT improvement in PPNC. Thermal transitions investigated by modulated differential scanning calorimetry explained the changes observed in the VSTs of all the samples. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on a significant improvement in HDT along with a marked increase in Tc. Such simultaneous improvements in HDT, VST, and T-c are highly desirable for applications involving the use of PP-based materials in rigid packaging.