Abstract
Nucleation efficiency and the special supermolecular structure formed in the presence of novel nucleating agents, N,N′-dicyclohexylsuberoylamide and N,N′-dicyclohexylsebacoylamide are presented in this work. The nucleation effect is studied in isotactic polypropylene (iPP). The melting and crystallization processes as well as the polymorphic composition are studied using calorimetric and thermo-optical techniques, while the solubility of the nucleating agents is studied by rheology. The properties of the iPP products nucleated by the novel compounds are characterized by conventional tensile and impact tests and the optical properties are measured by standardized haze measurements. The results indicated clearly that the studied nucleating agents are partially soluble in the iPP melt and possess dual nucleating ability. The formation of β-phase is evidenced by the calorimetric and thermo-optical measurements. The morphology of the nucleated samples shows similarity to iPP nucleated by well-known soluble “organogelators”; however, the nucleating agents introduced in this work are the first “organogelators” with β-nucleating efficiency.
Highlights
Isotactic polypropylene is a commodity polymer with very advantageous price/performance ratio, this polymer is used in very large amount in various application fields [1]. iPP is a semi-crystalline material its properties are determined predominantly by its crystalline structure
The results prove clearly, that the solubility and organogelating effect is different in the different polymer matrices, which is in good agreement with several earlier studies, stating that the effect of the nucleating agent depends on the molecular structure of the polymer as well
We have to note here that β-modification has smaller tensile modulus compared to the α-form, but the selectivity of the nucleating agent studied in this work is not large enough to form predominantly β-iPP, the improvement of the modulus of the α-modification, which is present in all samples will determine the stiffness
Summary
Isotactic polypropylene (iPP) is a commodity polymer with very advantageous price/performance ratio, this polymer is used in very large amount in various application fields [1]. iPP is a semi-crystalline material its properties are determined predominantly by its crystalline structure. In the presence of DCHSubA the gelation effect appears around 160 °C in the homopolymer and heterophasic copolymer matrices (see in Fig. 7b), the crystallization on the surface of the recrystallized nucleating agent can be visualized better.
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