Polypropylene usage

In 1981, about one third of the total polypropylene usage was based on conventional staple and multifilament products about 60 KT (thousand tons) of ST and 54.5 KT of multifilament yarn. The largest textile end-use of polypropylene was in carpet backing, which was made primarily from ribbon yams. By 1995, its production surpassed aliphatic polyamides (PA) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN), but lagged behind PET. In 2002, the production of polyester fiber was 62%, polypropylene fiber, 17.5%, polyamide fiber, 11.5%, and polyacrylonitrile, 18.1%i, of all synthetic fibers. 

PP known as polypropene, is one of those most versatile polymers available with applications, both as a plastic and as a fibre, in virtually all of the plastics end-use markets. Professor Giulio Natta produced the first polypropylene resin in Spain in 1954. Natta utilised catalysts developed for the polyethylene industry and applied the technology to propylene gas. Commercial production began in 1957 and polypropylene usage has displayed strong growth from this date. PP is a linear hydrocarbon polymer, expressed as... 

Growth of Polypropylene Usage as a Cost-Effective Replacement of Engineering Polymers... 

R Eller. Polypropylene usage in auto interior textile applications. The PP Technology Conference, Clemson University, August 1998. 

Although similar to polyethylene both in its structure and its properties, polypropylene has developed different patterns of usage. Estimates for the market breakdown in the United States, which are similar to those in Western Europe, are given in Table 11.8. 

Plastomer, a nomenclature constructed from the synthesis of the words plastic and elastomer, illustrates a family of polymers, which are softer (lower hexural modulus) than the common engineering thermoplastics such as polyamides (PA), polypropylenes (PP), or polystyrenes (PS). The common, current usage of this term is reshicted by two limitahons. First, plastomers are polyolehns where the inherent crystallinity of a homopolymer of the predominant incorporated monomer (polyethylene or isotactic polypropylene [iPP]) is reduced by the incorporahon of a minority of another monomer (e.g., octene in the case of polyethylene, ethylene for iPP), which leads to amorphous segments along the polymer chain. The minor commoner is selected to distort... 

Barbe, A.M., Hogan, P.A., and Johnson, R.A. Surface morphology changes during initial usage of hydrophobic, microporous polypropylene membranes, J. Membr. Sci., 172, 149, 2000. 

In contrast to lower olefins from diminishing resources like naphtha or associated gas, the lower olefins from methanol or dimethyl ether produced from abundant coal or natural gas are attracting attention. Of particular interest is the synthesis of ethylene and propylene from dimethyl ether because of their growing demand as raw materials for polyethylene and polypropylene. The usage of these polymers in everyday life is diverse (e.g., molded plastic items, plastic packaging films, etc.). Increasing demand for isobutene is inevitable since isobutene is used as the raw material for MTBE, MMA (methyl... 

Currently the greater part of usage lies with the economic five. These consist of the polyethylenes, polypropylenes, polyvinylchlorides and polystyrenes, all at similar prices per tonne, and polyester, which although nearly double the price of the other four offers special properties, usually in thinner sections etc. 

With the fast developments in the plastic industry, some of the lesser known plastics will either find future usage or already be used for devices, general medical instruments and apparatus or as implant aids. Certain plastics now involve alloys, i.e. mixtures of thermoplastics, and thermoplastic and thermoset resins. Improvements in what were the economic five plastics, i.e. polyethylenes, polypropylenes, polyvinylchlorides, polystyrenes and polyesters, are constantly occurring. Use of metallocene catalysts is likely to produce plastics of a controlled chain length. 

Although regenerated cellulose plants still exist, worldwide usage has significantly reduced due to the better dimensional stability properties of various polypropylene-based films. However, regenerated cellulose still finds usage for certain special applications, e.g. overwraps. 

Clariant produces plastic compatibilizers of Cesa-mix series, including Cesa-mix 8611 (for use in polyethylene and polypropylene) and Cesa-mix 8468 (for polypropylene-based WPC). However, they are not in active usage in the WPC as yet. 

Polypropylene (PP) in various forms (filled, unfilled, reinforced, rubber blended) finds the greatest usage of all automotive plastics. Its consumption is likely to accelerate as a result of new laws requiring recyclability, and because of the weight and cost reductions it offers. New fabrication techniques may also contribute to growth. For example, the monomaterial sandwich construction techniques developed by fabricators yield rugged and lightweight PP-based instrument and door panels. These parts consist of a sandwich of reinforced or neat PP substrate, a cross-linked PP foam, and a thermoplastic polyolefin elastomer (TPO) cover. 

The catalytic degradation of the polymers can be studied by a variety of catalysts. Walter Caminsky et al. studied the catalytic degradation of polypropylene using Lewis acid catalysts such as aluminum chloride and mixtures with titanium tetrachloride. These catalysts are soluble in molten polyolefin, and this helps to reduce the concentration catalyst to 0.1 or 1 % [31]. They observed that there is dramatic increase in the amount of small hydrocarbons (C4) by the usage of these catalysts. Different conditions were used to cany out this experiment in batch reactor (PR-1) and in fluidized bed reactor (LWS-5). It is clearly revealed from the gas chromatograms (Fig. 13.3) that the products run without catalyst contain... 

Analysis of the world fibers supply since 1970 has showed that all fiber types suffered from demand reduction (Fig. 4.2). The established fibers like polyester, polyamide, polypropylene, and acrylic were down in volumes. The usage of cotton, wool, and silk also decreased by 10.1% to 25.2 million tonnes, and man-made fibers... 

---