Crystallization Behavior of the Blends of Isotactic Polypropylene and Ethylene-Propylene Blocky Copolymers

Abstract

Two ethylene-propylene copolymer fractions (EP90 and EP120) were separated from a polypropylene in-reactor alloy by extraction with n-octane at different temperatures. ¹³C-NMR shows that these two fractions have a blocky structure and WAXD reveals that both ethylene and propylene sequences in these two fractions are crystallizable. However, EP90 has higher propylene content and the average length of propylene sequences is longer. These two fractions were blended with isotactic polypropylene (PP) at various proportions, respectively, and crystallization behavior and morphology of the blends were investigated. It is found that both EP90 and EP120 are partially compatible with PP. The phase-separated domains have a nucleation effect on crystallization of PP, leading to increase in crystallization temperature and crystallinity of PP in the blends. EP90 and EP120 also affect the relative content of β crystals in an irregular way. The number of EP90-rich domains in PP/EP90 blends is larger than that of EP120-rich domains in PP/EP120 blends, but the size of EP90-rich domains is smaller, indicating that EP90 has better compatibility with PP than EP120. Spherulites are formed in all the blends. The data were analyzed with Hoffman-Lauritzen theory of crystallization regime and the free energy of the folding surface (σ_e) was derived. Addition of EP90 and EP120 has little effect on the transition temperature from regime II to regime III. The value of σ_e for the PP/EP90 blends is similar to that of neat PP, but σ_e of the PP/EP120 blends is a little higher than that of neat PP.

Keywords:

• Blend
• Block copolymer
• Crystallization
• Polypropylene

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (2005CB623804) and Self-Motivated Research Projects of State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering.

Notes

^a r ₁∗r ₂ = 4[PP][EE]/[PE + EP] ² . ^b n _E = 2{[EEE] + [EEP + PEE] + [PEP]}/[EP + PE]. ^c n _P = 2{[EPE] + [EPP + PPE] + [PPP]}/[EP + PE].