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Zhang C, Xu M, Ren M, Shi H, Liu G, Li J, Liu X, Zhang L, Gao D. Morphology of impact polypropylene copolymer extruded cast film revealed by confocal Raman imaging. SOFT MATTER 2024; 20:3923-3930. [PMID: 38661471 DOI: 10.1039/d4sm00156g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
An impact polypropylene copolymer (IPC), composed of polypropylene (PP) and ethylene-propylene copolymer (EPC), was synthesized through two-stage in-reactor polymerization. A systematic investigation of the crystalline structure, thermal behavior, morphology, and tensile properties of the IPC extruded cast film was conducted. Specifically, the morphology of EPC was obtained by confocal Raman imaging by depicting the spatial distribution of the Raman band located at 1064 cm-1. The EPC phase exhibits fibrous morphology with the long axis aligning along the machine direction (MD). A three-dimensional (3D) heterogeneous structure of the IPC cast film obtained by confocal Raman imaging confirms that the fibrous EPC phase is dispersed in a 3D framework of the PP matrix. The mesomorphic phase in the as-prepared cast film transforms to a stable α-form crystal after annealing at 130 °C, which improves the yield strength but decreases the elongation of the cast film. The WAXD and SAXS results indicate that there is no obvious orientation of the crystallites. Thus, the anisotropy of tensile properties in the MD and transverse directions is closely related to the anisotropic phase morphology at the micrometer scale. The results reveal that the mechanical performances of IPC films are determined by the crystalline structure of the PP matrix and the morphology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chunbo Zhang
- SINOPEC (Beijing) Research Institute of Chemical Industry Co. Ltd, Beijing, 100013, China.
| | - Meng Xu
- SINOPEC (Beijing) Research Institute of Chemical Industry Co. Ltd, Beijing, 100013, China.
| | - Minqiao Ren
- SINOPEC (Beijing) Research Institute of Chemical Industry Co. Ltd, Beijing, 100013, China.
| | - Hongwei Shi
- SINOPEC (Beijing) Research Institute of Chemical Industry Co. Ltd, Beijing, 100013, China.
| | - Guoming Liu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Engineering Plastics, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Juan Li
- SINOPEC (Beijing) Research Institute of Chemical Industry Co. Ltd, Beijing, 100013, China.
| | - Xuanbo Liu
- SINOPEC (Beijing) Research Institute of Chemical Industry Co. Ltd, Beijing, 100013, China.
| | - Longgui Zhang
- SINOPEC (Beijing) Research Institute of Chemical Industry Co. Ltd, Beijing, 100013, China.
| | - Dali Gao
- SINOPEC (Beijing) Research Institute of Chemical Industry Co. Ltd, Beijing, 100013, China.
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Di Sacco F, Saidi S, Hermida-Merino D, Portale G. Revisiting the Mechanism of the Meso-to-α Transition of Isotactic Polypropylene and Ethylene–Propylene Random Copolymers. Macromolecules 2021. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.1c01904] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Federico Di Sacco
- Physical Chemistry of Polymeric and Nanostructured Materials, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Groningen 9747AG, The Netherlands
- Dutch Polymer Institute, P.O. Box 902, Eindhoven 5600 AX, The Netherlands
| | - Sarah Saidi
- Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), DUBBLE@ESRF BP CS40220, Grenoble 38043, France
- LMOPS, EA 4423, Université de Lorraine, CentraleSupelec Metz, 2 rue Edouard Belin, Metz 57070, France
| | - Daniel Hermida-Merino
- Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), DUBBLE@ESRF BP CS40220, Grenoble 38043, France
- LMOPS, EA 4423, Université de Lorraine, CentraleSupelec Metz, 2 rue Edouard Belin, Metz 57070, France
| | - Giuseppe Portale
- Physical Chemistry of Polymeric and Nanostructured Materials, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Groningen 9747AG, The Netherlands
- Dutch Polymer Institute, P.O. Box 902, Eindhoven 5600 AX, The Netherlands
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Di Sacco F, Gahleitner M, Wang J, Portale G. Systematic Investigation on the Structure-Property Relationship in Isotactic Polypropylene Films Processed via Cast Film Extrusion. Polymers (Basel) 2020; 12:polym12081636. [PMID: 32717873 PMCID: PMC7464016 DOI: 10.3390/polym12081636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2020] [Revised: 07/17/2020] [Accepted: 07/19/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
The effect of cast film extrusion processing conditions, such as the chill-roll temperature, temperature of the melt, and line speed, on the structure of different isotactic polypropylene homo- and random copolymers has been investigated by means of Small- and Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS and WAXS) and correlated to stiffness and haze. Stiffness and transparency have been found to be strongly dependent on the temperature of the chill-roll. Interestingly, line speed has been found to affect the total crystallinity when the chill-roll temperature is increased, while an overall minor effect of the melt temperature was found for all cast films. The polymer characteristics, defined by the catalyst nature and comonomer content, affect the final material performance, with the single-site catalyzed grades performing better in both mechanics and optics. Haze levels were found to correlate with the mesophase content rather than to α-crystallinity and to be dependent on the domain size for all grades. The remarkably low haze levels reached by the single-site grade with higher isotacticity can arise from high nucleation rate and orientational effects, which ultimately yield smaller and smoother scattering domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federico Di Sacco
- Macromolecular Chemistry and New Polymeric Materials, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands;
- Dutch Polymer Institute, P.O. Box 902, 5600 AX Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | | | - Jingbo Wang
- Borealis AG, St. Peterstr. 25, A-4021 Linz, Austria; (M.G.); (J.W.)
| | - Giuseppe Portale
- Macromolecular Chemistry and New Polymeric Materials, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands;
- Dutch Polymer Institute, P.O. Box 902, 5600 AX Eindhoven, The Netherlands
- Correspondence:
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Mileva D, Gahleitner M, Gloger D, Tranchida D. Crystal structure: a way to control properties in cast films of polypropylene. Polym Bull (Berl) 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s00289-018-2343-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
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Rytöluoto I, Gitsas A, Pasanen S, Lahti K. Effect of film structure and morphology on the dielectric breakdown characteristics of cast and biaxially oriented polypropylene films. Eur Polym J 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2017.08.051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Gahleitner M, Mileva D, Androsch R, Gloger D, Tranchida D, Sandholzer M, Doshev P. Crystallinity-Based Product Design: Utilizing the Polymorphism of Isotactic PP Homo- and Copolymers. INT POLYM PROC 2016. [DOI: 10.3139/217.3242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
The polymorphism of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) in combination with the strong response of this polymer to nucleation can be utilized for expanding the application range of this versatile polymer. Based on three “case studies” related to β-iPP pressure pipes, ethylene-propylene (EP) random copolymers for thin-wall injection molding and transparency and sterilization resistance of cast films we demonstrate ways of combining polymer composition, nucleation and process settings to achieve the desired application performance. The importance of considering interactions between polymer design, nucleation and processing parameters for designing application properties is highlighted.
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Affiliation(s)
- M. Gahleitner
- Borealis Polyolefine GmbH , Innovation Headquarters, Linz , Austria
| | - D. Mileva
- Borealis Polyolefine GmbH , Innovation Headquarters, Linz , Austria
| | - R. Androsch
- Institute for Polymeric Materials , Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Merseburg , Germany
| | - D. Gloger
- Borealis Polyolefine GmbH , Innovation Headquarters, Linz , Austria
| | - D. Tranchida
- Borealis Polyolefine GmbH , Innovation Headquarters, Linz , Austria
| | - M. Sandholzer
- Borealis Polyolefine GmbH , Innovation Headquarters, Linz , Austria
| | - P. Doshev
- Borealis Polyolefine GmbH , Innovation Headquarters, Linz , Austria
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