Crystallization behaviors of polypropylene and functional polypropylene

The crystallization behaviors of polypropylene (PP) homopolymer and its blends with 0-15% functional polypropylene (FPP), the backbones of which were grafted with guanidine and diamide polymer chains, were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry and wide-angle X-ray scattering. The crystallization kinetics were studied with spectral depolarization. The results revealed that the presence of FPP reduced the crystallinity and crystallite size of PP. Meanwhile, FPP increased the crystallization rate. Compared with that of the PP homopolymer, the crystallization temperature of PP/FPP blends was increased by more than 10 C. During isothermal crystallization, the relative crystallinity, developed as a function of time, was described by the Avrami equation. The half-time of crystallization for PP/FPP blends was much shorter than that for the PP homopolymer. The half-time of crystallization of PP/FPP blends depended much less on the crystallization temperature than that of the PP homopolymer. Therefore, FPP accelerated the crystallization rate of PP in a manner similar to that of a nucleator. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.