Abstract
The effects of MXene on the crystallization behavior of β-nucleated isotactic polypropylene (iPP) were comparatively studied. The commonly used MXene Ti3C2Tx was prepared by selective etching and its structure and morphology were studied in detail. Then MXene and a rare earth β-nucleating agent (NA) WBG-II were nucleated with iPP to prepare samples with different polymorphic compositions. The crystallization, melting behavior, and morphologies of neat iPP, iPP/MXene, iPP/WBG-II, and iPP/MXene/WBG-II were comparatively studied. The crystallization behavior analysis reveals that a competitive relationship exists between MXene and WBG-II when they were compounded as α and β nucleating agents. In the system, the β-nucleation efficiency (NE) of WBG-II is higher than α-NE of MXene. The β-phase has relatively low thermal stability and would transform to α-phase when cooled below a critical temperature.
Highlights
Isotactic polypropylene is one of the most widely applied thermoplastic polymers due to its desirable properties, including good mechanical properties, excellent chemical and moisture resistance, versatile processability, and low manufacturing cost [1,2]
We studied the effects of MXene on the non-isothermal crystallization behavior of Isotactic polypropylene (iPP) [27]
This work chose the most common MXene, Ti3C2Tx, and comparatively studied its effects on the crystallization and polymorphic behavior of β-iPP by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), and polarized light optical microscopy (PLOM), so as to provide new understanding of the preparation of β-iPP/MXene composites with tunable polymorphic behavior and morphologies
Summary
Isotactic polypropylene (iPP) is one of the most widely applied thermoplastic polymers due to its desirable properties, including good mechanical properties, excellent chemical and moisture resistance, versatile processability, and low manufacturing cost [1,2]. In 2011, the Gogotsi team firstly successively synthesized 2D Ti3C2Tx nanosheets by selectively etching Al atoms from a layered Ti3AlC2 ternary carbide in hydrochloric acid [18] They called the resulting 2D materials “MXene” due to their graphene-like morphology. The results revealed that the tensile strength and ductility were improved simultaneously by 35.3% and 674.6% While these works focus on the effects on the physical properties of MXene/polymer composites, studies on their crystallization processes have been less reported. This work chose the most common MXene, Ti3C2Tx, and comparatively studied its effects on the crystallization and polymorphic behavior of β-iPP by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), and polarized light optical microscopy (PLOM), so as to provide new understanding of the preparation of β-iPP/MXene composites with tunable polymorphic behavior and morphologies. The crystallinity of β-crystals Xβ is derived by multiplying the crystallinity Xc and relative content of β-crystals βc [37]
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