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Abstract: Poly(propylene)/elastomer blends with β-form nucleating agent (β-NA) aryl amides compound (TMB-5) were prepared. The effects of β-NA on crystallization, melting behaviors and elastomer morphologies of PP/elastomer blends were studied through polarization optical microscope (POM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electronic microscope (SEM). The fracture behaviors, including notched Izod impact fracture and single-edge notched tensile (SENT) fracture, were comparatively studied to establish the role of NA in improving the fracture toughness of PP/elastomer blends. Our results showed that the presence of β-NA leads to determinable β-PP formation in the blends, and as a consequence the fracture toughness of the blend is improved dramatically. Compared with notched Izod impact testing, which can efficiently characterize the fracture toughness of the blends only at lower elastomer content, SENT testing provides more detail of fracture behavior in all the compositions. Furthermore, SENT test shows that the significant improvement in fracture toughness of PP/elastomer/β-NA is contributed to the simultaneous enhancement of crack initiation energy and crack propagation energy, but largely dominated by crack propagation stage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The synergistic effect of β-modification and annealing on the impact toughness of a commercially available polypropylene random copolymer (PPR) was investigated. Interestingly, the impact toughness of β-nucleated PPR after annealing at low temperature (0°C) was almost five times as high as that of the virgin PPR without annealing. The crystalline structure, supermolecular structure, phase morphology, the relaxation of chain segments and fracture behavior of matrix were investigated to explore the toughening mechanism related to the β-modification and annealing. It was found that annealing improved the mobility of chain segments in amorphous phase as well as the strength of ligament of PPR matrix with profuse β crystals having the intrinsic low plastic deformation resistance, responsible for the superior toughness achieved. This work provides a possible method to toughen semi-crystalline polymers at low temperature by combination of β-modification and suitable annealing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As a part of serial work about the toughening effect of elastomer and nucleating agent on polypropylene (PP), this work is focused on the microstructure changes of PP matrix in PP/elastomer blends with β-phase nucleating agent (β-NA) during the uniaxial tensile deformation process. The microstructure changes have been investigated through differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) measurements. The results show that there is a transformation of β-PP to α-PP, which is dependent on the local strain of the tensile-deformed specimen during the deformation process. The bigger the local strain, the high the degree of the β→α transformation is. At the later stage, β-PP is completely changed into α-PP. The presence of elastomer, especially at high load, prevents such transformation, possibly leading to more β-PP participating in the later deformation process of the fracture, which most likely results in the great improvement of fracture toughness of PP/elastomer/β-NA. Further results show that the β→α transformation occurs mainly in the necking region of the specimen during the deformation process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As a part of serial work about the application of tetra-needle-shaped zinc oxide whisker (T-ZnOw) in polymer composites, this work is focused on the crystallization and tensile fracture behaviors of T-ZnOw/polyamide 6 (T-ZnOw/PA6) composites. Our results show that the addition of T-ZnOw improves the composites tensile strength greatly. For virgin PA6, the stress–strain curve exhibits double-yielding phenomenon. Surface modified T-ZnOw reinforced PA6 composites exhibit higher yield stress and smaller strain-to-fracture compared with virgin PA6. The morphologies of tensile-fractured surfaces show that, addition of T-ZnOw changes the fracture mode from crazing–tearing/brittle fracture mode of virgin PA6 into fibrillation/brittle fracture mode of PA6 composites. Especially, the fracture process of T-ZnOw in composites during the tensile test has been characterized by scanning electronic microscope (SEM) and the corresponding reinforcement mechanism has been discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]