Isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of isotactic polypropylene nucleated with substituted aromatic heterocyclic phosphate salts

The crystallization kinetics of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and nucleated iPP with substituted aromatic heterocyclic phosphate salts were investigated by means of a differential scanning calorimeter under isothermal and nonisothermal conditions. During isothermal crystallization, Avrami equation was used to describe the crystallization kinetics. Moreover, kinetics parameters such as the Avrami exponent n, crystallization rate constant Z(t), and crystallization half-time t(1/2) were compared. The results showed that a remarkable decrease in t(1/2) as well as a significant increase in overall crystallization rate was observed in the presence of monovalent salts of substituted aromatic heterocyclic phosphate, while bivalent and trivalent salts have little effect on crystallization rate of iPP. The addition of monovalent metal salts could decrease the interfacial free energy per unit area perpendicular to PP chains sigma(e) value of iPP so that the nucleation rate of iPP was increased. During nonisothermal crystallization, Caze method was used to analyze the crystallization kinetics. It also showed that monovalent metal salts had better nucleation effects than bivalent and trivalent metal salts. From the obtained Avrami exponents of iPP and nucleated iPP it could be concluded that the addition of different nucleating agents changed the crystal growth pattern of iPP. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.