Synergistic Toughening Effect of Olefin Block Copolymer and Highly Effective β-Nucleating Agent on the Low-Temperature Toughness of Polypropylene Random Copolymer

In the present work, the synergistic toughening effect of olefin block copolymer (OBC) and a highly effective β nucleating agent (NA)-Calcium salt of pimelic acid (CaPim) on polypropylene random copolymer (PPR) was studied. Mechanical tests showed that with the introduction of 0.1 wt % CaPim, there was almost no change in the low-temperature (below 0 °C) toughness of PPR. Although introduction of OBC could obviously improve the toughness at 23 °C, high content is needed to effectively toughen PPR at low temperature. By coadding OBC and CaPim, PPR/OBC/NA blends showed not only great enhancement of toughness over the temperature range tested but also lower OBC content of undergoing brittle-ductile transition compared with PPR/OBC blends. The crystalline structure, crystallization behavior and phase morphology were investigated to explore the possible synergistic toughening mechanism. The high β-crystal content formed in PPR matrix and the finer distribution of OBC phase might be responsible for the superior...