Deformation-induced structure evolution of oriented β-polypropylene during uniaxial stretching

Polymorphism and Stretch-Induced Transformations of Sustainable Polyethylene-Like Materials

Herein we demonstrate that polyethylene-like bioderived, biodegradable, and fully recyclable unbranched aliphatic polyesters, such as PE-2,18, develop hexagonal crystal structures upon quenching from the melt to temperatures <∼50 °C and orthorhombic-like packing at higher quenching temperatures or after isothermal crystallization. Both crystal types are layered. While all-trans CH2 packing characterizes the structure of the orthorhombic-like form, there is significant conformational disorder in the staggered long CH2 sequences of the hexagonal crystals. On heating, the hexagonal crystals transform to the orthorhombic type at ∼60 °C via melt recrystallization, but no change is apparent during heating samples with the orthorhombic form up to the melting point (∼95 °C). The hexagonal structure is of interest not only because it develops under very rapid quenching from the melt but also because under uniaxial tensile deformation it undergoes a stretch-induced transformation to the orthorhombic structure. Compared to deformation of orthorhombic specimens that maintain the same crystal type, such transformation results in larger strains and enhanced strain hardening, thus representing a desired toughening mechanism for this type of polyethylene-like materials.

The Structural Evolution and Mechanical Properties of Semi-Aromatic Polyamide 12T after Stretching

The development of semi-aromatic polyamides with excellent mechanical properties has always been a popular research avenue. In this work, the semi-aromatic polyamide 12T (PA12T) with the maximum tensile strength of 465.5 MPa was prepared after stretching at 210 °C 4.6 times. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) were used to characterize the structural evolution of semi-aromatic polyamide 12T (PA12T) after stretching at different stretching temperatures and stretching ratios. The formation mechanism of this change in mechanical properties was investigated from different aspects of the aggregated structure such as crystal morphology, crystal orientation and crystallinity. The relevant characterization results show that the crystal structure, crystal orientation and crystallinity of PA12T were the highest when the sample was pre-stretched at 210 °C, which is crucial for improving the mechanical properties of PA12T. These findings will provide important guidance for the preparation of polymer materials with excellent mechanical properties.

In-Situ Synchrotron X-ray Study on the Structure Variation of Morphology-Identified Injection-Molded β-Nucleated iPP under Tensile Deformation

The deformation behavior of semi-crystalline polymers is strongly dependent on the morphology formed during processing. In this study, in-situ synchrotron X-ray was firstly used to identify the morphological distributions of injection-molded isotactic polypropylene (iPP) with different concentrations of β-nucleating agent. It was found that under relatively high concentration of β-nucleating agent (i.e., ≥0.03 wt.%), the outer region (skin and shear region) of the iPP was dominated by mainly highly oriented α-phase as well as certain amount γ-phase, while the core region was rich in β-crystals with little if any orientation. The addition of the β-nucleating agent was beneficial for the formation of lamellae with large lamellar stacking distance in the shear layer. Then the synchrotron X-ray was applied to study the structure variation of those morphology-identified samples under tensile deformation. It was found that voids and cavities along the stretching direction existed in the deformed iPP samples and their volume increased with increasing concentration of β-nucleating agent. The increased volume of void and cavity was associated with the β to α phase transition, which mainly occurred at the core region. In addition, upon stretching crystalline fragmentation and rearrangement took place following the formation of thinner lamellae.

Deformation-Induced Crystallization Behavior of Isotactic Polypropylene Sheets Containing a β-Nucleating Agent under Solid-State Stretching

The deformation-induced crystallization of an isotactic polypropylene (iPP) sheet containing a β-nucleating agent was evaluated. The phase transformation of the β-modifications was investigated and the crystal morphology was observed at room temperature after stretching at different temperatures. The results showed that the crystallinity increased after solid-state stretching. When the stretching temperature was below the initial crystallization temperature, stretching deformation promoted the orientation of amorphous molecular chains. When the deformation temperature exceeded the crystallization temperature, part of the β-modifications underwent a phase transformation process and was stretched into a shish-kebab structure. However, once the stretching temperature was close to the melting point, the β-modifications melted and recrystallized, and the shish-kebab structure underwent stress relaxation due to poor thermal stability, transforming into α-modifications. It was revealed that the crystal phase transformation mechanism of the β-modifications was based on the orientation of the molecular chains between the adjacent lamellae. In addition, the shish-kebab cylindrite structure played an important role in modifying the tensile and impact properties of the iPP sheet. The tensile and impact strengths increased by as much as 34% and 126%, respectively.

Cavitation in Poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) during Tensile Deformation

The poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) sample was used to investigate the cavitation-induced stress-whitening phenomenon during stretching at different temperatures via the ultrasmall-angle X-ray scattering technique. Two modes of cavitation were found that mode I cavitation activated around yield point followed by mode II cavitation generated in highly oriented state. The critical strain for initiating the mode II cavitation increases with the increase of the stretching temperature, whereas the critical stress grew steadily in the lower temperature regime (30-60 °C) and reached a plateau at 70 °C. The appearance of mode II cavitation at large strains was independent of the mode I cavitation. The mode I cavitation was attributed to the competitive process between the formation of cavities and shearing yield of lamellae, whereas the mode II cavitation was proven to be related to the failure of the whole highly oriented entangled amorphous network because of the breaking of interfibrillar load-bearing tie molecules. Size distribution of cavities has been successfully calculated using a model fitting procedure. The results showed that the quantity of cavities increased heavily while the size was kept nearly constant during the propagation of the mode II cavitation.

Evolution of cellular morphologies and crystalline structures in high-expansion isotactic polypropylene/cellulose nanofiber nanocomposite foams

The development of cell morphology and crystalline microstructure of high expansion injection-molded isotactic polypropylene/cellulose nanofiber (PP/CNF) nanocomposite foams was understood.

Advances in preparation, modification, and application of polypropylene membrane

Polypropylene (PP) is one of the most used polymers for microporous membrane fabrication due to its good thermal stability, chemical resistance, mechanical strength, and low cost. There have been numerous studies reporting the developments and applications of PP membranes. However, PP membrane with high performance is still a challenge. Thus, this article presents a comprehensive overview of the advances in the preparation, modification and application of PP membrane. The preparation methods of PP membrane are firstly reviewed, followed by the modification approaches of PP membrane. The modifications includes hydrophilic and superhydrophobic modification so that the PP membranes become more suitable to be applied either in aqueous applications or in non-aqueous ones. The fouling resistant of hydrophilized PP membrane and the wetting resistant of superhydrophobized PP membrane are then reviewed. Finally, special attention is given to the various potential applications and industrial outlook of the PP membranes.

A WAXS/SAXS study on the deformation behavior of β-nucleated propylene–ethylene random copolymer subjected to uniaxial stretching

Structural evolution of β-nucleated propylene–ethylene random copolymer during stretching was studied. A deformation model combining crystal transition, cavitation and orientation depending on drawing temperature was proposed.

Hierarchical crystalline morphologies induced by a distinctly different melt penetrating process

It is the first time that hierarchically crystalline morphologies induced by melt penetration of the melt with different interactions.

Lamellar thickness and stretching temperature dependency of cavitation in semicrystalline polymers

Polybutene-1 (PB-1), a typical semicrystalline polymer, in its stable form I shows a peculiar temperature dependent strain-whitening behavior when being stretched at temperatures in between room temperature and melting temperature of the crystallites where the extent of strain-whitening weakens with the increasing of stretching temperature reaching a minima value followed by an increase at higher stretching temperatures. Correspondingly, a stronger strain-hardening phenomenon was observed at higher temperatures. The strain-whitening phenomenon in semicrystalline polymers has its origin of cavitation process during stretching. In this work, the effect of crystalline lamellar thickness and stretching temperature on the cavitation process in PB-1 has been investigated by means of combined synchrotron ultrasmall-angle and wide-angle X-ray scattering techniques. Three modes of cavitation during the stretching process can be identified, namely "no cavitation" for the quenched sample with the thinnest lamellae where only shear yielding occurred, "cavitation with reorientation" for the samples stretched at lower temperatures and samples with thicker lamellae, and "cavitation without reorientation" for samples with thinner lamellae stretched at higher temperatures. The mode "cavitation with reorientation" occurs before yield point where the plate-like cavities start to be generated within the lamellar stacks with normal perpendicular to the stretching direction due to the blocky substructure of the crystalline lamellae and reorient gradually to the stretching direction after strain-hardening. The mode of "cavitation without reorientation" appears after yield point where ellipsoidal shaped cavities are generated in those lamellae stacks with normal parallel to the stretching direction followed by an improvement of their orientation at larger strains. X-ray diffraction results reveal a much improved crystalline orientation for samples with thinner lamellae stretched at higher temperatures. The observed behavior of microscopic structural evolution in PB-1 stretched at different temperatures explains above mentioned changes in macroscopic strain-whitening phenomenon with increasing in stretching temperature and stress-strain curves.

Melting processes of oligomeric α and β isotactic polypropylene crystals at ultrafast heating rates

The melting behaviors of α (stable) and β (metastable) isotactic polypropylene (iPP) crystals at ultrafast heating rates are simulated with atomistic molecular dynamics method. Quantitative information about the melting processes of α- and β-iPP crystals at atomistic level is achieved. The result shows that the melting process starts from the interfaces of lamellar crystal through random dislocation of iPP chains along the perpendicular direction of lamellar crystal structure. In the melting process, the lamellar crystal gradually expands but the corresponding thickness decreases. The analysis shows that the system expansion lags behind the crystallinity decreasing and the lagging extents for α- and β-iPP are significantly different. The apparent melting points of α- and β-iPP crystals rise with the increase of the heating rate and lamellar crystal thickness. The apparent melting point of α-iPP crystal is always higher than that of β-iPP at differently heating rates. Applying the Gibbs-Thomson rule and the scaling property of the melting kinetics, the equilibrium melting points of perfect α- and β-iPP crystals are finally predicted and it shows a good agreement with experimental result.

Pore formation mechanism of β nucleated polypropylene stretched membranes

Schematic diagram of pore formation mechanism of β-PP during stretching at 25 °C and 90 °C.