VARIATION IN MOLECULAR-WEIGHT AND MOLECULAR-WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION OF AGED IPP FILAMENTS AS REVEALED BY HTGPC

Experiments on the molecular weight variations of physically, room temperature aged isotactic polypropylene (iPP) filaments were done using the High Temperature Gel Permeation Chromatography (HTGPC). Evidence emanating from the studies indicates a very marginal change in molecular weight of the materials during aging. The granules of the materials were chosen as the reference standard. Based on the polydispersity D = MBAR(W)/MBAR(n) of the granules, filaments of commercial grades GYE 47 and PXC 31399 were characterized between an aging period ranging from 2 weeks to 8 months. The filaments of the GYE 47 grade have their distributions D lowered on the average by about 12%. On the other hand, those of the PXC 31399 grade have a less definite trend in change, but on the average, D is lowered by about 20%. The distributions of this latter grade are highly scattered over the period of aging. The GYE 47 grade shows a reduction in the distribution of a near asymptotic nature. It is believed that the disparity in the trend of change of D between the two samples could be attributed to their relative thermodynamic stability with the PXC 31399 grade being less stable.