Morphology evolution including formation of cylindrulite in isotactic polypropylene derived from periodical shear field

It has been well established that periodical shear stress can improve the mechanical performance of isotactic polypropylene during injection molding. In the current study, Polarized Light Microscopy (PLM), two-dimensional Wide-Angle X-ray Diffraction (2D-WAXD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were employed to investigate the morphology evolution of vibration sample. Compared with static sample, the morphology of vibration one, which is derived from periodical shear field, exhibits different hierarchy structure: there is an additional fiber layer containing cylindrulites between the shear layer and the core layer, and the orientation is enhanced obviously. Through etching technique, it is found that there exists non-crystalline component in the fibril (core) of cylindrulite, and it may induce the growth of beta crystals directly regardless of its non-crystalline nature. Based on the investigated results, a model of formation of cylindrulite is proposed. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.