Maximum Rate of Crystallization and Morphology of Random Propylene Ethylene Copolymers as a Function of Comonomer Content up to 21 mol %

Crystallization of Random Metallocene-Catalyzed Propylene-Based Copolymers with Ethylene and 1-Hexene on Rapid Cooling

Propylene-based random copolymers with either ethylene or 1-hexene as comonomer, produced using a metallocene catalyst, were studied regarding their crystallization behaviors, with a focus on rapid cooling. To get an impression of processing effects, fast scanning chip calorimetry (FSC) was used in addition to the characterization of the mechanical performance. When comparing the comonomer type and the relation to commercial grades based on Ziegler-Natta-type catalysts, both an interaction with the catalyst-related regio-defects and a significant difference between ethylene and 1-hexene was observed. A soluble-type nucleating agent was found to modify the behavior, but to an increasingly lesser degree at high cooling rates.

Counits Content and Stretching Temperature-Dependent Critical Stress for Destruction of γ Crystals in Propylene-Ethylene Random Copolymers

Tensile deformation behavior of three random propylene-ethylene copolymers with the same molecular weight and different contents of counit was investigated at different temperatures from room temperature to close to melting point via tensile tests, step-cycle tests, and in situ wide-angle X-ray diffraction techniques. Upon stretching, the original crystalline lamellae must be destroyed, generating new highly oriented ones. A critical stress has been suggested, under which the original crystallites can be destructed. The propylene-ethylene copolymer samples in pure γ-form transformed gradually into α-form during tensile stretching. This crystalline transition proceeded via a destruction (melting) of the original γ-form crystals followed by recrystallization of the freed polymeric chain segments into α-form along stretching direction. This result provides a marker for investigating the critical stress mentioned above. Such critical stresses triggering the destruction of γ-form crystals for the propylene-ethylene copolymers of different ethylene counit contents were successfully calculated. It turned out that this critical stress depended on the ethylene counit content and stretching temperature. Samples with less ethylene counits show higher critical stress because of a lower degree of insertion of the ethylene counits into the crystalline unit cell than samples with higher ethylene counit content. The critical stresses remained constant when the samples were stretched at low-temperature region, whereas they decreased significantly at high stretching temperatures close to the melting points due to strong thermal distortion of the crystalline lattices, making the crystallites less stable.

Mechanical and Transport Properties of Poly(propylene-co-1-heptene) Copolymers and Their Dependence on Monoclinic and/or Mesomorphic Polymorphs

Poly(propylene-co-1-heptene) copolymers have been evaluated in a wide 1-heptene content range. Two different polymorphs can be observed in this interval under the processing conditions imposed: monoclinic crystallites and mesomorphic entities. The unique presence of one or the other lattice at specific content or the coexistence of both of them at the intermediate composition interval is a key factor affecting some of the exhibited properties. The influence is observed in characteristics mainly dependent on either crystalline structure, like rigidity, or the amorphous regions, as location and intensity of glass transition. To get a deeper understanding, the transition from mesophase to monoclinic crystallites has also been studied by DSC and by WAXS and SAXS experiments using synchrotron radiation. It is observed that this transformation is only partial and just involves one-third of the initial ordered mesomorphic entities. Permeability to different gases is mainly dependent on amorphous content and hindrance that monoclinic or mesomorphic entities impose on those disordered regions.

Structure and properties of low-isotacticity polypropylene elastomeric fibers prepared by sheath-core bicomponent spinning: effect of localization of high-isotacticity component near the fiber surface

Sheath-core type bicomponent melt-spun fibers were produced by extruding the melts of low-isotacticity polypropylene (LPP) as the core component and the blend of LPP and high-isotacticity PP (IPP) as the sheath component. IPP content in the sheath was changed from 8 wt% to 40 wt% while sheath/core composition was varied from 50/50 to 10/90. Accordingly overall IPP content was kept constant at 4 wt%. Even though the overall IPP content was intact, bicomponent fibers with lower contraction ratio after spinning, higher elastic recovery and slightly higher modulus and strength were obtained by increasing the IPP content in the sheath and decreasing the sheath layer composition, i.e., localizing the IPP to the region near the surface in the fiber cross-section. Structure analysis of the as-spun fibers suggested the suppression of crystallization of LPP in the sheath by blending IPP. By contrast, enhancement of molecular orientation and crystallization of the sheath component were found to occur by localizing the IPP to the region near the fiber surface. It was speculated that this behavior was caused by the kinematic mutual interaction of the sheath and core components in the melt spinning process.

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.