Crystallization Behavior of polypropylene filled with modified carbon black

novel method was employed to modify the surface of carbon black (CB) by organic small molecules in a Haake Rheomix mixer. The investigations of Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Flourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray Photoelectronic Spectroscopy (XPS) indicated that organic small molecules were grafted onto the surface of MCB and the particle size of MCB was reduced notably. Then the crystallization behavior of polypropylene (PP)/MCB composite as well as pure PP and PP/CB composite were investigated via differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and optical polarizing microscope (POM). It was found that both CB and MCB can influence the crystallization behavior of PP and provide nucleation sites to the matrix. However, MCB accelerated the crystallization rate and increased the crystallization peak temperature of PP more evidently than CB did. In the case of non-isothermal crystallization, Jeziorny and Mo Equations were used to analyze the data of DSC and both could describe these systems. Finally, the nucleation activity of MCB was evaluated. It was proved that the nucleation activity of MCB was higher than that of CB at the same concentration.