Effect of β-nucleating agents on the crystallization behavior and force-electric properties of the polypropylene blends

Polypropylene blends with different crystalline shapes were prepared to explore the effect of crystalline structure on the force and electrical properties of polypropylene-elastomer blends and the mechanism of influence. The crys-tallization behaviors of the blends were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), polarized light microscopy (PLM), and differential scanning calorime-try (DSC). The mechanical and dielectric properties of the blends were tested to find the correspondence between crystallization characteristics and proper-ties. The results show that the addition of the beta-nucleating agent changes the crystalline shape of PP blends from alpha to beta crystalline, significantly reduces the crystallite size of the blends, and significantly improves the crystallinity of the blends by forming dense crystalline regions embedded in each other. The appropriate amount of the beta-nucleating agent facilitates thermal vibration between electrons and lattice and hinders the carrier migration, significantly reducing the conductivity and increasing the breakdown field strength from 84.81 to 102.30 kV/mm.