The relationship between crystal structure and nucleation effect of 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid tris(phenylamide) in isotactic polypropylene.

1,3,5-Benzenetricarboxylic acid tris(phenylamide) (hereinafter called as 'BTA-93') was synthesized and proved to be a highly efficient α-crystalline nucleating agent through investigation of crystallization and melting behaviors of nucleated isotactic polypropylene (iPP) by differential scanning calorimetry. The optimum addition amount of BTA-93 in iPP was 0.07 wt%. At this low addition amount, crystallization peak temperature of iPP was increased from 119.3 °C of neat iPP to 126 °C and the nucleation effect was comparable to that of a highly effective commercial nucleating agent disodium bicyclo [2.2.1] heptane dicarboxylate (HPN-68) at addition amount of 0.2 wt%. Furthermore, the crystal structure of BTA-93 was obtained by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The crystal data indicated that the b-direction of BTA-93 crystal was about four times of 0.655 nm which was the cell edge of (010) plane, and the lattice mismatch degree was 2.81%. The outstanding nucleation efficiency of BTA-93 in iPP could relate to the lattice matching between BTA-93 and α-iPP crystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]