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Organic phosphates used as nucleating agents can remarkably promote the stiffness and crystallization rate of polypropylene homopolymer and ethylene–propylene copolymer. In this article, the nucleating activity of 2,2′-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl) phosphoric acid and its derivatives for isotactic polypropylene (iPP) were investigated with a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and polarized light microscope (PLM), and their influence on mechanical properties of polypropylene was also studied. The results showed that the sodium salt (NA7) and the glyceride ester (NA8) of the organic phosphoric acid were of high nucleating efficiency. If 0.4 wt% of NA7 or NA8 was added to PP, the crystallization peak temperature of PP was raised 15°C or 11°C, respectively, the amount of crystallinity was increased by 3 to 6%, and the crystallization rate was enhanced significantly. The nucleating activity is thermally stable when the mixture of iPP and a nucleating agent was melted and crystallized repeatedly in the DSC. The nucleating agents mentioned above could increase the modulus of the polymer by 20 to about 30% and could increase the flexural strength by 10 to about 20%. However, a number of other organic phosphates tested have little nucleating effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crystallization kinetics of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and nucleated iPP with two organic phosphates, sodium salt (NA7) and triglyceride ester (NA8) of 2,2'-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl) phosphoric acid, were investigated by means of a differential scanning calorimeter under isothermal and nonisothermal conditions. During isothermal crystallization, a modified Avrami equation was used to describe the crystallization kinetics. Moreover, kinetics parameters, such as the Avrami exponent, n, the crystallization rate constant, k, and the half-time of crystallization, τ1/2, are compared. The results showed that a dramatic decrease of the half-time of crystallization, as well as a significant increase of the overall crystallization rate, were observed in the presence of the organic phosphates. During nonisothermal crystallization, the primary crystallization was analyzed using the Ozawa model, leading to similar Avrami exponents for iPP and iPP/NA7, which means simultaneous nucleation with three-dimensional spherulitic growth. However, for iPP/NA8, the Avrami exponent in nonisothermal crystallization is evidently different from that in isothermal crystallization, which would indicate a different mechanism of crystal growth. Adding the nucleating agent to iPP makes the overall crystallization activation energy increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]