Effect of oscillatory shear field on the morphology and mechanical properties of β-nucleated isotactic polypropylene

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of extra oscillatory shear field on morphology and mechanical properties of β-nucleated isotactic polypropylene by using a homemade vibration-assisted extrusion apparatus, in which oscillatory shear field was introduced into the extrusion head driven by crank and link mechanism. The results show that the extra oscillatory shear filed induces a significantly enhanced orientation of β-crystal besides causing a better homogeneous dispersion of β-nucleant, and the oriented β-crystal has a high ratio of daughter lamellae to parent lamellae orientation, which was rarely reported in other literatures. The vibration increased the overall crystallinity and changed the relative content of β-crystal. For the higher level nucleation agent content iPP(0.4 wt%), the relative contents of β-crystal just changed a little or basically unchanged after vibration. However, for iPP contenting 0.2 wt% nucleation agent, the content of β-crystal decreased. All the changes in the morphology, crystallinity, dispersion of β-nucleant and β-crystal content had a great influence on the mechanical properties, and that result was the improvement of yield stress and decrement of the elongation at break. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 57:838–845, 2017. © 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers