Comparison of structure development in quiescent crystallization, die extrusion and melt spinning of isotactic polypropylene and its compounds containing fillers and nucleating agents

Abstract

Abstract The influences of fillers and nucleating agents on crystalline structure and stress induced crystallization of isotactic polypropylene were studied under a range of cooling and processing conditions, including die extrusion and melt spinning. Continuous cooling transformation curves were determined for polypropylene and various polypropylene filler compounds. The influence of spinline stress on crystallization was studied. The experiments reveal that under quiescent conditions, the kinetics and crystalline forms produced by the crystallization of polypropylene are dominated by nucleating fillers and impurities. The crystalline orientation‐spinline stress relationship, on the other hand, was found to be the same for polypropylene and its compounds. At high uniaxial stresses, kinetics and orientation development are dominated by homogeneous orientation crystallization.