Morphological analysis of the tiger stripe on injection molding of polypropylene/ethylene-propylene rubber/talc blends dependent on based polypropylene design

Tiger stripe of injection molding of polypropylene (PP)/elastomer/talc blends was analyzed in terms of the morphology of the dispersed phase comprising elastomer components by using gloss and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, the contribution of the polymer design of PP, i.e., industrial block-type grade consisting of a homo-PP portion as the matrix and an ethylene propylene random copolymer portion as the domain is discussed. Local gloss measurement of the injected specimen along with the flow direction of the molten blends indicates a periodic fluctuation repeating higher and lower degrees of gloss, corresponding to the period of glossy and cloudy portions of the tiger stripe, respectively. These local gloss degrees are highly dependent on the morphologies of the dispersed phases near the surface layer of the injected specimen. The gloss increases when the ratio long axis (L) and diameter (D), LID, of the dispersed phase are increased, and the gloss decreases when the LID is decreased. Increasing the intrinsic viscosity of the ethylene-propylene rubber portion of the PP is an effective design factor for restricting the deformation against shear strain during injection process by giving the dispersed phases high elasticity. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.