Influence of Annealing on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Isotactic Polypropylene with β-Phase Nucleating Agent

The microstructure and mechanical properties of beta-nucleated iPP before and after being annealed at different temperatures (90-160 degrees C) have been analyzed, Annealing induced different degrees of variation in fracture toughness of beta-nucleated iPP samples. namely, slight enhancement at relatively low annealing temperatures (< 110 degrees C) and great improvement at moderate temperatures (120-130 degrees C), whereas dramatic deterioration at relatively high temperatures ( > 140 degrees C) has been observed. The variation of fracture toughness of beta-nucleated iPP is observed to be dependent on the content of beta-NA. Experiments, including scanning electronic microscope (SEM), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), are performed to study the variations of microstructures as well as the toughening mechanism of the beta-nucleated iPP after being annealed. The results indicate that the decreased number of chain segments in the amorphous region and the formation of microvoids, which is easily triggered by the secondary crystallization at 120-130 degrees C, are mainly responsible for the great improvement of toughness through promoting the lamellae to slip or elongate along the impact direction and inducing the intense plastic deformation during the fracture process.