Morphology Development in Relation to Phase Diagrams

A liquid-solid phase diagram established for blends of iPP/POE by means of DSC and LS is presented at the top left of Fig. 7.12, displaying four distinct regions isotropic (I), coexistence of crystal-isotropic (Ci +1), coexistence of crystal-crystal-isotropic (C1+C2 + I), and crystal-crystal (Ci + C2- -C3). Cj and C2 represent the a- and y-form crystals of iPP, respectively, while C3 is designated for POE crystals (31). The blend preparation is identical to the procedure conducted for sPP/POE blend specimens. These iPP/POE blends are found to be completely miscible in the melt state, showing little or no depression of the melting point with composition. 

It is of particular importance that the surface of iPP crystals isothermally crystalhzed at various temperatures is not smooth, resulting in the black and white periodicity observed via optical microscopy, which is ascribed to the formation of undulations with interrupted edges. That is to say, undulations can be observed not only in sPP single-crystal lamellae, but also in iPP crystals, though in the different sector. 

Crystalhzation studies in blends of iPP/POE reveal that the crystallization process of iPP is affected by the addition of POE and vice versa. It has been demonstrated how the POE promotes the nucleation and crystal growth processes of iPP, this effect being more appreciable at low POE concentration ( 10 wt% POE). Analysis of the crystallization kinetics of the iPP crystals isothermally crystallized at different temperatures in blends of iPP/POE is supported by the morphological observations (lamellae, dendritic, and eventually spherulitic texmres) through optical microscopy. 

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Morphology Development in Relation to Phase Diagram of Crystalline/Amorphous Polymer Blends... 

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