Non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of polypropylene/poly(lactic acid)/maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene blends

Abstract

The non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of neat polypropylene (PP), PP/poly(lactic acid) (PLA) blend and PP/PLA/maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene (MAH-g-PP) blend were investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry. Jeziorny’s and Mo’s models were employed to analyze the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics. The nucleation parameters (K g) and activation energies (ΔE) of non-isothermal crystallization were calculated by the modified Lauritzen–Hoffman equation and Kissinger’s equation, respectively. The results show that Jeziorny’s and Mo’s models are suitable for describing the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of the samples. PP/PLA (80/20) blend shows the fastest crystallization rate due to the nucleation effect of the dispersed PLA particles in PP matrix. However, the crystallization of PP in the blend is restricted by the incorporation of the MAH-g-PP. The K g and ΔE are in the order: PP/PLA/MAH-g-PP (64/20/16) blend > neat PP > PP/PLA (80/20) blend.