Effect of compounding procedure on morphology and crystallization behavior of isotactic polypropylene/high-density polyethylene/carbon black ternary composites

The effect of compounding procedure on morphology and crystallization behavior of isotactic polypropylene/high-density polyethylene/carbon black (iPP/HDPE/CB) composite was investigated. iPP/HDPE/CB composites were prepared by four compounding procedures (A: iPP?+?HDPE?+?CB; B: iPP/HDPE?+?CB; C: HDPE/CB?+?iPP; D: iPP/CB?+?HDPE). Scanning electron microscopy observation showed that CB particles are mainly distributed in HDPE in all composites, and the phase morphology of composites was obviously affected by a compounding procedure. The size of the HDPE/CB domains in the composites prepared by procedures A and D decreased with the increase in CB content, whereas that of HDPE/CB in the composites prepared by procedures B and C rarely changed with the increase in CB content. The crystallization behaviors of the composites were significantly affected by their phase morphology, which resulted from the variation of compounding procedure. The isothermal crystallization rate of iPP in the composites prepared by procedures A and D was obviously increased, which may originate from the small HDPE/CB droplets dispersed in the iPP phase. The non-isothermal crystallization curves of composites prepared by procedure D represented two peaks because the iPP component in these composites had the fastest crystallization rate, whereas the curves of composites prepared by other compounding sequences only exhibited one peak. Moreover, the crystallinity of HDPE almost increased by one time with the incorporation of only 1?phr CB because the CB particles selectively located in the HDPE phase, and the crystallinity of HDPE decreased with the further increase of CB content because of the strong restriction of CB on the HDPE chains. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.