Isothermal crystallization of polypropylene/surface modified silica nanocomposites

In the present work, 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxy-silane silanized silica(SiO2-WD70) and 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide immobilized silica(SiO2-WD70-DOPO) nanoparticles were prepared. Silica, SiO2-WD70 and SiO2-WD70-DOPO were incorporated into polypropylene(PP) by melt compounding. Differential scanning calorimetry(DSC), X-ray diffraction(XRD) and polarized optical microscopy(POM) were employed to investigate the isothermal crystallization behavior of PP and PP/silica composites. The kinetic constant(kn), and half crystallization time(t1/2) were calculated by Avrami equation,while the surface free energy of folding was calculated by Lauritzen-Hoffman theory. The increased kn, decreased t1/2 and the surface free energy(σe) in the order of PP, PP/SiO2, PP/SiO2-WD70 and PP/SiO2-WD70-DOPO nanocomposites were attributed to the surface modification of silica. XRD indicated that SiO2-WD70-DOPO addition had no effect on PP crystal structure but accelerated the crystallization rate. POM determined that SiO2-WD70-DOPO addition promoted the nucleation of PP by inducing a higher nucleation density during isothermal conditions. The surface modified nanoparticle SiO2-WD70-DOPO might find possible application as a new type of inorganic nano-sized nucleation agent for PP.