A facile methodology to effectively improve the melt strength and microcellular foamability of isotactic polypropylene

Melt strength is crucial in foam-processing of polymer materials, especially for linear molecular structured isotactic polypropylene (iPP), which has comparatively weak melt strength to hinder its foaming. In this study, a commercial high melt strength polypropylene (HMSPP) was added into the iPP ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of polymer research 2020, Vol.27 (5), Article 118
Main Authors: Shi, Qiankun, Fu, Long, Yang, Yang, Li, Kun, Wang, Quan, Liu, Baochen, Zhang, Xiaoli, Chen, Jingbo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Chemistry
Chemistry and Materials Science
Crystallization
Crystals
Foaming
Heat treatment
Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering
Isotacticity
Microcellular foams
Mixtures
Nucleation
Original Paper
Polymer Sciences
Polypropylene
Rheological properties
Schedules
Strength
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Summary:Melt strength is crucial in foam-processing of polymer materials, especially for linear molecular structured isotactic polypropylene (iPP), which has comparatively weak melt strength to hinder its foaming. In this study, a commercial high melt strength polypropylene (HMSPP) was added into the iPP matrix, cooperated with a thermal treatment, aiming to enhance the melt strength and microcellular foamability of iPP under supercritical CO 2 . Melt strength enhancement effect was proved by rheological and microcellular foaming results. The crystallization and batch foaming behaviors of iPP and its HMSPP added blends at different foaming conditions were investigated. It was observed that the addition of HMSPP could refine the crystals of the blends, and the crystal nucleation sites could be increased apparently. Cooperated with the suitable thermal control schedule during the batch foaming process, the introduced crystals could correspondingly improve the melt strength and cell nucleating ability of HMSPP added iPP. At a given HMSPP content of 20 wt.%, quite fine microcellular foams with the average cell size of 0.8 μm, and cell density up to 10 12 cells/cm 3 were fabricated.
ISSN:1022-9760
1572-8935
DOI:10.1007/s10965-020-02101-9