Isothermal crystallization of iPP studied by superfast calorimetry

The isothermal crystallization behavior and the structure and morphology of isotactic poly(propylene) (iPP) and iPP/hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin (HR) 90/10 blend were analyzed. To cover the entire temperature range, isothermal crystallizations were studied using superfast calorimetry at a high cooling rate in the range 0 to 110 °C, and by conventional DSC at a low cooling rate in the range 120 to 140 °C. Structural and morphological changes due to the different thermal treatments were also analyzed. The complete crystallization curve ranging from Tg to Tm showed bimodal crystallization behaviors for both iPP and iPP/HR 90/10 blend. This result is explained by taking into consideration the polymorph properties of iPP. It is in fact assumed that the curve from Tg to 60 °C referred mainly to the crystallization kinetics of the iPP mesomorphic form by homogeneous nucleation, whereas the curve from 60 °C to Tm mainly represented the crystallization kinetic curve for the monoclinic form by heterogeneous nucleation. This hypothesis is confirmed by the analysis of the structures obtained using wide angle X-ray experiments. Moreover, the addition of HR to iPP causes a drastic reduction in the crystallization rate of iPP in both regions due to the diluent effect of the miscible resin.